Legacy (The Tale of Team Hiruzen)
by TheFemaleReviewer
Summary: This is was a requested story from a pretty awesome fan of mine. I'd LOVE to classify it as a "Naruto Secrets" or "Canon" but with everything in the anime currently, I'm not sure if it will apply anymore. Anyway! It's still a pretty awesome read, if you LOVE Orochimaru, Tsunade and J-man and wanna hear ALL about their youth! Come on in, I got something nice for ya. :)
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: This is basically a bonus story I wrote for some fans. It's ALL ABOUT Team Hiruzen (Orochimaru, Jiraiya, Tsunade and Hiruzen) and their personal lives/who they are/what they really thought deep down inside. When it's focusing solely on Orochimaru and his inner struggles, the undertones get pretty deep and serious. But when focusing on other characters, it's normally just a blast. Thanks for reading!

**LEGACY (The Tale Of Team Hiruzen)**

**Hiruzen**

**The Genjutsu Test**

"So... Why are we testing them again?" Kagami asked for the umpteenth time.

"To be able to assort their strengths and weaknesses accurately before we enroll any of them into any kind of academy." Tobirama Sensei replied putting clear stress on the word "academy".

It was Hashirama Sensei's idea to create the academy. Tobirama wasn't too keen on the idea. He worried that gifted children and below average children alike would miss out on the opportunities they would have to grow if they were just "plopped" in a room together. He claimed that a parent teaching their own children was superior because it insured each child was taught what they needed to know instead of just given a basic, general curriculum like Hashirama was pinning for. Hashirama's outlook was different. He agreed with his brother, that the gifted kids would fall through the cracks, most likely ignoring instruction and opting to sleep while the slower ones may fall even farther behind. But he worried more about the orphaned children. Who would teach them? And if all the different clans of Konoha didn't find some way to integrate, how would we create the vision of true peace?

And so, Konoha Ninja Academy began as more of an integration system than a school.

"Hey, guys, I brought snacks!"

We all turned to see Hashirama Sensei struggling to kick the wooden door open, arms full of packaged foods and a baby barely hanging on. I quickly stood up and pulled the door fully open for him allowing him to step into the small observer room we were occupying.

"Thanks, Saru-kun." He said, grinning at me, then balancing the foods in one arm, he leaned the baby toward me. "Here, grab him."

I fumbled with my hands, feeling somewhat awkward at holding a newborn that was slightly fussy at having been carried so loosely by Hashirama.

We all faced a large window that gave us sight into a small room with only a table and a chair in it. The window had a jutsu on it that allowed us to see inside but the people in the room couldn't see us.

"_Finally_, brother. You see, the first one's just come in. You were about to miss it."

"Sorry. Sorry." Hashirama said sheepishly. "They were going to run out!"

He held up the package of sweets. Everyone laughed except Tobirama and we all began conversing about the food.

Tobirama insisted that if we were to create an academy, then we should test the children's cognitive abilities before they entered so we could accurately assess how much good it would do them when they graduated. When Hashirama was told of this, he whispered to me that "Tobi-kun" was only doing it because he was jealous of his award winning idea.

I smiled, positioning the infant in my lap who had finally begun to get jovial, and recalled the memory.

The five and six year olds were all gathered neatly in the hall outside of the room and one was let in at a time.

"Let me get a bite, Hashirama Sensei." Torifu said, leaning over Koharu.

"I want to try some too!" Kagami said.

"Wait, I didn't even get one-"Koharu began to complain.

"Silence!" Tobirama said, then he pointed. "It's your granddaughter."

We all snapped to attention. The first child being let in truly was none other than Tsunade Senju. She wore a dainty white dress with her white-blonde hair tied into two ponytails on either side of her head. It was clear Hashirama's wife, Mito, dressed her up.

The baby leaned up, looking through the window with wide eyes and pointed.

"Na-Na!" he shouted.

I took a couple bells from the baby pouch on the floor and handed them to him to play with.

"So what is this test all about?" I asked.

"Morality." Tobirama responded dryly.

Everyone glanced at each other, not wanting to admit they were still clueless. Luckily, Hashirama picked up on the atmosphere.

"Basically, each kid will be given a morale dilemma and based on how they solve it will show us where they are cognitively as a ninja." Hashirama explained.

"What's the dilemma?" Danzo, who had been dead silent the entire time finally asked.

Down below, a genjutsu specialist stood before Tsunade waving his fingers allowing her to fall under his trance. She blinked once, twice, and then her eyes remained open and blank, staring at the wall in front of her. Seeing but unseeing.

"There's two campsites." Hashirama began. "One of them has five people sitting around the fire, the other has just one. There's a paper bomb next to the campsite with five people sitting next to it and it's only around three seconds from going off. If it goes off, it'll kill all five people at the site. However, there's a wire attached to the paper bomb that can string it along, swiftly pulling it over to the campsite with the single person sitting at it. So, the question is..."

"Oh, I see." Homura said. "Do you do nothing and allow the five people to die or do you pull it and kill the one person, saving all five?"

"Well, can't you just tell them about the danger?" Koharu asked.

"They won't have enough time to react." I said.

Hashirama and Tobirama nodded in agreement. I looked down at Tsunade fidgeting in her seat.

"Isn't this a bit too much for a child?" I asked.

"Not a child being readied for warfare." Tobirama replied, never taking his eyes off his grandniece.

"Tobirama's right, this is the kind of issues you get faced with as a ninja. It's best to get them familiar with it early." Hashirama said.

Just then, Tsunade began to cry and not just a couple of tears, the poor kid was bawling. The door opened and one of the genjutsu specialists entered.

"What's happening in her head?" Tobirama asked.

"She pulled the tag and killed the one person." He told them.

Tobirama nodded.

"Expected as much."

"But then we gave her a different scenario."

Everyone turned, eyebrows raised with interest.

"Instead of it just being a random person in the other campsite, we turned it into her one year old infant brother, Nawaki."

Slowly, almost like it was timed, everyone's eyes shifted from Tsunade to the baby bouncing in my lap. He had gotten the bells stuck on my belt loop and was batting at it like a playful cat.

"Ouch." Hashirama said. "No wonder she's crying. She's probably torn up after having to sacrifice all those five people."

The Genjutsu Specialist cocked his head.

"Actually... She scarified her baby brother."

"What?!" Kagami exclaimed.

The man nodded.

"I was pretty surprised myself. That was a huge act of empathy she just showed. Almost maddening. I wish I had half the balls that little girl has."

I locked my eyes on Tsunade. All our jaws were almost dropped to the floor as a woman entered the room with a cup of water and a tissue to wipe her face. I quickly moved Nawaki from my lap to the baby carriage on the floor so he wouldn't see the scene before him.

"You're...erasing her memory, aren't you?" Tobirama asked.

"Yes." The man agreed. "But not just hers, all of them."

The next couple of hours were boring, completely listless. Kagami, Koharu and Torifu quit, claiming they had things to take care of. Nawaki had long since fallen asleep in the carriage on the floor. Hashirama was watching, if only just barely, and Danzo had to keep kicking me to keep me awake.

"I'm going to learn all the information from the experiment if you keep nodding off." Danzo said to me.

"Go ahead, be my guest." I said, readjusting myself in a more comfortable position.

All the other kids did the exact same thing. No difference. Each of them sacrificed the single person when given the original problem and sacrificed the five people when given the fixed problem. It seemed only Tsunade was crazy enough to kill a family member.

"Maybe she had a fight with him last night." Hashirama had proposed, nudging the sleeping baby boy. "He is always pulling her hair and hiding her sandals."

"But still, enough to kill him?" I had asked. "That's a bit too far."

Tobirama shook his head.

"Are you both fools?" He asked.

We stared at him blankly.

"Tsuna-chan is clearly far more advanced than we gave her credit for."

Hashirama leaned forward in his chair.

"You mean...?" He began.

"Even though it was a genjutsu and it felt real, she _knew _it was a test. She just gave us the answer she thought we wanted." Tobirama finished.

"You're probably right." Hashirama said then he shrugged. "Or she just has an insane morale level."

Finally, it was so long, dreary and boring, I couldn't take it anymore. I got up and seeing that I'd given up, Danzo was quick out of the door with Homura right on his heels.

"I have some scroll studying to attend to." He said.

Homura didn't even give an excuse but neither Hashirama nor Tobirama even minded them. Their eyes were wide, watching one boy. Suddenly, interested again, I walked up to the window and looked down. The kid looked like he was wringing his hands.

"What's he doing with his fingers?" I asked.

"It looks like he's counting something." Tobirama said.

"Isn't he in the genjutsu?"

"He should be." Hashirama said.

"...Is he slow?" I asked.

"I know him quite personally." Hashirama said. "He's of average intelligence for a ninja but above average for a servant boy."

I squinted harder.

"Wait... Is that Jun-kun and Haijime-san's son?" I asked. "Wasn't his name Jiraiya or something?"

They both nodded. The door opened and the Genjutsu specialist came in.

"Something go wrong?" Tobirama asked.

"No... Well... I don't know!" he said.

We both turned to him, he looked incredibly flustered.

"What's going on?" Hashirama asked.

"He's running us all around." The man said. "He keeps...messing it up!"

"Explain." Tobirama said.

"He won't just choose the two answers we gave him. First, he tried calling out to them and seeing that wouldn't work, he tried to take his shoe off and throw it."

"What?" I said, more out of confusion than shock.

"I kid you not, the kid reaches down, in a genjutsu, and _throws _the shoe! It damn near broke him out of the entire thing."

I looked down at the boy who was given a cup of water, the same water that every child got that was laced with a medical serum to make the drinker forget the half hour prior to having drunk it.

"Why is he getting up so early?" Tobirama asked.

"Well, after he did that, he goes and tries to pull the string just so it stops right between both campsites."

Hashirama burst into laughter.

"The kid's gutsy!" he exclaimed.

"And we had to break the system down for that, too." He said exasperatedly. "The final chance we gave him, instead of all that, he immediately runs as fast as he can to the tree, grabs the bomb, and runs away with it."

The room was silent. Finally, Tobirama spoke up.

"You mean..._that_ child...that _five_ year old child decided to sacrifice himself for the six people?"

The man, still flustered, just shrugged.

"He's not fit to be a ninja." The specialist finally said. "He's too unorthodox. He doesn't know how to follow rules and direction. It's completely against a ninja's nature."

"He'll do fine." Hashirama disagreed. "Creativity like that is only seen once in a life time."

"But how useful is creativity when a suicidal streak accompanies it?" Tobirama asked. "We put that kid in the academy, he'll be dead in five weeks."

Hashirama bowed his head in that half comical, half resigned way he always did and said nothing.

"It also takes a good amount of empathy to be able to value six stranger's lives above your own." I pointed out.

"Neither of you are understanding, we're not looking for empathy here, we're looking for-"

"Here's the final child." The Genjutsu Specialist interrupted.

A child with very pale skin and jet black hair that reached his waist walked into the room slowly. He was very small and when he pulled himself up into the chair, his feet didn't touch the floor. When the woman came in to entrance him in the genjutsu, he said and did nothing, just watched her. Strangely, I found he intrigued me more than all the others. I couldn't put my finger on it, but he was different somehow. The way he carried himself.

"I don't recognize him. Who is he?" I asked.

"Orochimaru." Hashirama said.

"Orochimaru what?" I asked.

"Your guess is as good as mine." He said offhandedly. "When we asked him his name, he bent down on the ground and wrote that out with his finger. That was all he wrote."

_That's strange. Is it a surname or a first name? And what clan is it from? It sounds entirely foreign._

"Where did you find him?" I wondered.

"Wandering around the lands between Konoha and the Sand village." He told me. "He doesn't speak."

"At all?"

He shook his head.

"_I've _never heard him speak." He said. "The Caregiver Program set him with Hidoi-chan and s_he's_ never heard him speak either."

_Maybe he's a slow learner but then again, he said he saw him write... Writing normally isn't learned until age seven._

"He's probably cognitively retarded." Tobirama said, motioning toward him. "Look at his face, he must've been in that genjutsu for over ten minutes now and he hasn't done a thing."

_That's also true, most of the kids will cry or squirm or do something. He's just sitting absolutely still. _

The Genjutsu specialist was completely silent behind me. I watched him as he stared at Orochimaru intently, quickly jotting things down onto a clipboard he held. Finally, the child was done and the woman came in with the cup of water but then the Genjutsu specialist quickly stood up and knocked hard on the window. The knock must have been a signal to her not to give him the water. She abruptly stopped and backed out of the room, leaving him seated. Now, his eyes traveled upwards and locked with ours sitting up there staring at him.

"There's something wrong with that child." The Genjutsu Specialist said. "He's scaring me half to death."

"What is it?" Tobirama asked.

"Another jutsu we do along side the genjutsu one is a brain analysis." He said. "We have a couple members of the Yamanaka clan standing by and monitoring each child's thoughts, feelings and decisions as they deal with their issues."

Tobirama and Hashirama turned to him, listening intently but I found I couldn't take my eyes off of the little boy's. He continued staring up at me.

"So, for example, the Jiraiya kid's brain activity was all over the place. He was literally going through dozens of scenarios and answers to the dilemma a second."

_I see. That's what he was doing with his fingers. He was probably counting all of the ways he could save the people._

"But this kid..." the man said. "There was absolutely no brain activity in the emotional region of the brain. None at all."

That made me turn away from the window.

"What?"

"All the other kids, take Tsunade for example, showed heavy activity in the emotional side of the brain, especially when they made the decision. But this kid was completely dark."

"What decision did he choose?" Tobirama asked.

"That's another thing." The man said. "He did nothing at all."

"So, he let the five people die." Hashirama said.

Tobirama shrugged.

"There's nothing wrong with that. He just chose a different way than the others."

"You're not getting it, Tobirama." Hashirama protested. "He didn't _feel_ anything when he chose that. Right?"

"Exactly!" the man said. "It's a morale dilemma but the part of the brain that deals with emotion and morality was completely static. As a matter of fact, he didn't even _consider_ helping the people. He didn't think of it at all. In his genjutsu, he immediately sits down in the grass and watches the people's _heads _fucking blow off!"

I quickly turn back toward the window, the boy, Orochimaru, was still staring up at me. He was expressionless.

"Hey...this window still has the jutsu on it, right?" I asked.

But everyone was so wrapped up in the discussion, they didn't hear me.

"Maybe he didn't understand the question?" Hashirama proposed.

"We thought that too, so we tested him again and again, but he just sat down."

"The kid's void of empathy." He concluded.

"Not just that..." The man said. "He's completely devoid of _any_ emotion whatsoever."

The man was pacing the room with a pained expression. He sighed, turning to us.

"Personally, I think we should haul his ass right back to that gutter you pulled him out of and just be done with him." He decided. "No good is going to come from a child like that."

Tobirama suddenly started roaring with laughter.

"That's perfect!"

"Tobirama, this isn't funny at all." Hashirama said.

It was incredibly strange seeing the two brothers on polar opposite arguments for once. I had to blink to remind myself which was which.

"He had people's _lives_ in his hands." Hashirama pointed out. "And he refused to accept responsibility."

"You're missing the point, Brother." Tobirama said, pulling himself together. "Ninja _are _apathetic. We're liars, cheaters, thieves, manipulators..._assassins._ The more empathy you have coming into this profession, the worst off you'll be when we stomp it all into the ground during the academy years. That's what this entire test was for! Children like our granddaughter will struggle with pain and fear all her life whereas, this child, will most likely grow to be one of the best ninja in history."

"You're wrong, Tobirama." Hashirama protested. "There's something very strange about a child who was born with no moral compass. Bad things could happen with him if he isn't watched very, very carefully."

"I agree. He _should_ be watched very carefully. But not in the way you're thinking. This is what a natural born ninja looks like. He was _born _for this. He's the _definition_ of a ninja!"

After more tests were run on Orochimaru, ones in which the specialists tried to get him to speak to them or participate in a game or even make a facial expression, they finally gave up. He didn't react to any one of the tests. He just stared at everyone. Hashirama and Tobirama left during the tests, taking the still sleeping baby Nawaki with them, but I watched the entire thing, unable to understand why he was so introverted.

_He writes, why doesn't he speak? What is it that he knows that he's not telling?_

They gave him the cup of water but he wouldn't drink. In the end, tired of dealing with him, they just let him go with his memory. I left the building around the same time and caught up to him on his way home. It was a cloudy rainy day. When I fell into step next to him, he stopped walking and looked up at me. From that close to him, he didn't look as tiny but he was still small.

"Orochimaru, right?" I said.

He stared up at me, saying nothing and then, after a long silent minute, he turned around and continued walking. I walked next to him again and this time he didn't stop. We trudged through a large, barren field that Hashirama was planning on building new apartment complexes in.

"So you want to be a ninja?" I asked.

He didn't make any motion that said he'd heard me.

_Maybe his dialect is different from mine? Or...is it possible he speaks a different tongue than I do altogether? If that's the case, then maybe he really didn't understand the question._

"What do you like to do for fun?"

Silence again. I twirled a kunai around my finger. I blame my twenty-one year old immaturity for the cold-hearted trick I did next. As I had been walking the bells Nawaki had gotten stuck on my belt continued to bounce in the wind. Just out of curiosity, I unhooked them, tied them to the loop of the knife and in a swift, fluid way, threw it at him.

The knife shot right past his face and hit the oak tree next to his head. It had missed him by less than a hair. I wasn't aiming at him, of course. I was testing something else.

Slowly, he cocked his head, turning his blank eyes to me.

_Perhaps, he's...!_

"Don't worry." I said, laughing easily. "I'm not trying to kill you. I was just-"

Before I finished the question, the knife I had thrown was whipped across the field. I angled my head roughly to the side missing it by less than a centimeter.

_He was really aiming to..._

He stood before me then, in a fighting stance and I smiled.

"Relax. I was just testing you. I'm not actually trying to-"

But he wasn't listening, he darted for me kicking upwards at my head. I ducked under him. He pushed up from the ground, trying to land an elbow in my stomach but I grabbed his arm and swung him around. He bounced right back. His Taijutsu was incredibly fluid, every fist, foot, knee and elbow was connected. He was also mind blowingly flexible easily slipping in and out of splits mid-air and on the ground or bending into a backflip. It was almost like his limbs were rubber. He punched at me and I easily took all his fists.

_He's agile. And not just in a normal way like any five year old that practiced at home a lot with parents or older siblings, but in a controlled way. Those aren't reflexes. He gauged the threat, thought about it, and acted accordingly._

"Come on... You can do better than that." I said to him.

Egged on, he jumped at me and kicked but I blocked each kick with my forearm, he jumped off me, did a backflip in the air, landed in the grass in a crouched position and then rolled up again. The sky boomed with thunder. I pushed back against him offensively, swinging my leg at him, trying to drop my elbow on his head or catch his chin with my knee. He was successful in avoiding all of them, much skilled in Taijutsu beyond his years.

"Great job." I said. "But you're never going to get me that way, keep going."

As close as he was, I could see his eyes clearly. They weren't the same as they were during the test or even five minutes before when I was walking with them. At that time, there was fire in them...life.

I swept my foot underneath him, finally catching him. He stumbled backwards, hitting his back on the grass and I knelt before him with an elbow to his neck. The rain began to fall as I knelt there over him. I stood up and nodded at him.

"You're really good, not just for your age either, for any age." I said.

He continued staring at me.

"But...of course... All this time, I know that you have no idea what I'm saying." I revealed to him.

I knelt down next to him and reached, covering his ears with both of my hands.

"I'm not really good at this. My Sensei's wife's a far better medical ninja than I'd ever hope to be but... Maybe I can help a bit..."

I pressed my hands to his ears, trying to concentrate my chakra to find out where the networks had been destroyed. I worried it would take long. He was glaring up at me with the most untrusting eyes I'd ever seen in my life. I was half expecting him to jump up, grab my knife and kill me but he remained there, for what reason, I have no idea. After a couple of minutes, I detected them all and was able to reattach the more important networks. I was lucky to discover that the damage was small and even my low experience level could fix it.

As I reattached them, I watched his eyes which began widening, growing with wonder. The thunder roared above and he jumped, gaze directed there. I slowly let go of his ears. Then, I reached for the kunai knife in the grass next to him, detached the bells and jingled them in front of his face. Squinting, he covered his ears.

"Yup, that should do it." I said, getting to my feet. "I repaired your eardrums as best as I could. You'll be fine now."

_The reason he's been silent all this time is because of that. Though... Strangely... It doesn't explain why was completely emotionless during those tests..._

I turned and began walking away, leaving him to sit in the grass, staring up incredulously at the booming sky.

I smiled as I walked.

_It must feel great... To experience the roar of the world for the first time._

**The Bell Test**

While I was walking through the village, delivering a batch of letters to everyone's home for Hashirama, I happened across him again. With my satchel hanging across my chest, I pulled one of the notes out, finally curious about what it said.

"Attention Villagers. If you have a child that is at least five years of age and able, please have them report to the academy for the ninja initiation ceremony first thing tomorrow morning. Thank You for your continued support."

I laughed.

_It's clear as day Tobirama was the one that wrote this..._

If there's anything I learned while being the first disciple of the Hokage and his brother, it's that one person cannot run a nation alone. That was the time that I began considering the alternative of having a group counsel running the nation. What's better than an oligarchy?

"Say something!"

I looked up from the paper, distracted by loud, high-pitched, childish sounds. Initially, I made to look back down at the paper and keep walking, assuming it was just children at play but then a flash of pale skin and black hair caught my eye. I froze.

Three boys who looked almost exactly the same, seemingly triplets, were on the pier out-looking the lake near the Uchiha district. I couldn't make out what they were saying but I saw they were crowding around him..._that _boy...the same boy from before...

"Cant'cha talk, you dummy?!"

"I bet his Momma never taught him, the looser!"

I fingered my satchel, caught between letting children work out their own difficulties and being "that" adult that has to cause a scene. But then...

"I bet you can swim better than you can talk, freak!"

They shoved him. Everything began happening fast. I was just close enough to see his legs kick up, leaving the ground. And then I saw the slosh of water that resulted from his fall smacking against the wooden edge of the pier.

They burst with laughter, watching the water swish and splash.

"Looks like he really can't swim!" one of them declared.

"What an idiot."

My legs moved before I even ordered them to and in seconds, I pushed past them.

"Whoa!" one of them exclaimed, stumbling to the side.

"What the-... Oh... Oh no! Run!"

Seeing I was an adult, they scattered. It didn't even register to me. My hand plowed through the surface, grabbing for him, digging... He was far beneath the surface by that time. I had to dive. My fingers tangled with a fabric of clothing and I pulled, bringing him up and out. Reaching for the pier again, I pulled us both up and back onto the wood.

He struggled to sit up, heaving but nothing was coming up.

I managed to notice a few birds fly over our heads, feet lightly skimming the water as they dipped. The water at the spot where he had fallen was just beginning to settle. The sun beat down on the back of my neck. Other than the nature sounds, the only thing to be heard was my hand tapping his back once and hard. He coughed, finally expelling the water that was trapped. He continued coughing, sucking in breath like two kunai knives screeching together. It was a horrible sound but I was content to feel my worry finally dissipate and relief fill its space.

"Are you okay now?" I asked.

And then the next thing that happened was unpredictable. One of his hands, still grasping my sleeve for dear life, began shaking. He turned toward me, eyes lowered shamefully, but the wobble in his bottle lip gave him away. He sucked in another breath and couldn't help to force it out shakily, pained. I grabbed him, hugging him.

"It's alright. You're fine." I said.

But somewhere, deep down inside, I had a feeling that he didn't need reassurance.

_All he really needs is just to..._

"Wwwwaaaahhhhh." He began sobbing.

_Cry. _

My eyes drifted back toward the lake as I allowed him to grasp onto me, putting his arms around my neck and sticking to my chest, most likely because of fear. His voice filled the area. The birds near us, picking near the ground, flew up into the air startled by it. And the frogs hopping around near the bank, dove face first into the waves. All of nature was attentive to the cry of the silent boy, much like the first cry of a baby after it's just been born.

I got to my feet, pulling his incredibly light weight body up with me, since he was still clinging to my shirt, and I slowly picked the couple of scrolls up off of the grass that had fallen out of my satchel in my haste to reach him.

He stopped crying pretty quickly. I hadn't even gotten to the next house I had to deliver to before he became the silent observer he was when I had first met him. With him hanging on my back, arms wrapped around my neck, I finished my messenger duty, taping the scrolls to doors or handing them to children sitting on the porch outside.

It wasn't until I stepped foot into the training area that I said my first words to him since I'd saved him at the pier. I squatted down, letting him off my back.

"What direction is your home in?" I questioned. "I'll drop you off there before I return to my servant duties with the clown Hokage and his tyrannical younger brother."

I meant it as a joke but he didn't seem to catch it at all. He blinked at me as I squatted there in front of him. The wind blew, causing Nawaki's bells, which I still hadn't managed to dislodge from my belt, to sound. His eyes flicked down to them, quicker than lightning, and he reached for them.

It's clear he's still getting used to his ears. I wonder how long he was walking around with his hearing impaired.

Just as his fingers were about to close around them, I jumped back. Something like a frown crossed his face momentarily, but just momentarily. He ran forward, reaching again, but again I jumped out of the way. I laughed, standing up.

"If you want these, you're going to have to try harder than that."

He swung around, dipping into a low kick with his left leg that I quickly avoided by jumping over it. He dove toward me, swinging out with his left arm, then his right arm, then his knee. And as he did all this, I began to see that even though his movements were fluid and connected, they weren't firm. That may have been his only issue.

I dipped down into a squat, falling directly into line with his foot which smacked into the side of my head. His knee folded, absorbing most of the pressure that the blow would have given me and he stumbled backwards.

_That didn't even hurt slightly._

"Like I thought." I said, smirking at him.

He raised his eyebrows, seeming to be baffled by the fact that his kick didn't seem to affect me at all.

"Your style is almost flawless...except for the fact that, it's just style." I said, getting to my feet.

"It's clean and smooth, but it doesn't do what combat is supposed to do." I thrust my fist into my hand, creating a sounding wave. "Which is make impact. Because that's what fighting is for, right? To actually hurt the person you're up against."

_Unless, deep down inside, he really doesn't _want_ to hurt anyone..._

He stared at me. The wind caused my bells to sound again. His eyes lowered to them. He reached again but I caught his hand.

"The day you're able to take these bells from me, will be the day you've perfected your Taijutsu." I told him, then I winked. "Until then, keep practicing."

I stood up and turned, picking up my satchel and beginning to wonder if Hashirama and Tobirama really did have some other errand for me to run when I heard his voice.

It actually caught me completely off guard. For some reason, I expected the voice to sound much heavier and angrier and deeper than it did. But as he said...

"Who are you?"

I was surprised to hear that the voice was light, and innocent, and polite sounding. I turned to him.

"I'm Hiruzen Sarutobi." I told him. "But you can call me Hiruzen."

The wind moved his hair out of his eyes and I noticed, for the very first time, that they were an odd yellowish color. Sort of like a reptile.

_That's weird._

"Hiruzen...Sensei?" he asked.

I nodded. He moved his hand from behind his back showing me a kunai knife. My eyebrows popped up as I touched the opposite side of my belt realizing that while he hadn't taken the bells, while we were sparring, he had somehow gone into my weapons pouch and taken one of my knives.

"Do you want this back?" he asked me.

I couldn't help but grin.

_It seems he does have a sense of humor afterall..._

"Nah, keep it." I said, grinning. "But the next time I see you, you'd better be skilled enough to take the bells."

He retracted his hand, gazing at me and saying nothing. I turned and continued walking back toward the town again. When I glanced back over my shoulder, I was surprised to see him still there, bouncing around on his feet, using the kunai knife he'd taken and practicing his Taijutsu.

_Tobirama's right... That child might really be a true prodigy. _


	2. Chapter 2

**Orochimaru**

**Snakes**

There was a banging on the door. It was persistent. It had been there for more than five minutes. Yelling accompanied it. I was ignoring it.

Instead of listening, I dropped a cockroach, which I had found from prying up the bathroom floorboards, into the large tank I kept. The snake slithering back and forth in the tank immediately made a beeline for the roach and swallowed it whole.

_That's right... Snakes don't bite. They swallow. Snake fact number 53._

"Orochimaru!" the voice hollered.

The snakes tongue flicked out, back and forth, probably searching for more food. I held a second roach a couple of inches above the tank. Its forked tongue directed itself toward the creature and it raised its head.

_Snakes smell with their tongues. Snake fact number 47._

The snake's head snapped at the roach and swallowed it whole also, right out of my fingertips.

_All snakes are carnivores. Snake fact number 46._

The door swung open loudly, knocking toothbrushes to the floor and over-turning some rolls of toilet paper.

"Didn't we tell you not to lock this door?!" the voice exclaimed. "It's the bathroom!"

_Perhaps if I was allowed to sleep in a private room, it wouldn't matter if the door was locked or not._

"I forgot." I replied.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." The woman replied, putting her hands on her hips.

_Hidoi-san. Age 33. Genin Rank. Widowed. Lives in an old, damaged, three bedroom apartment on the poorer side of Konoha with her younger brother and three sons. Was unfortunate enough to be picked in a drawing to be a provider for an orphaned boy...namely, me._

"What the hell did you do to the floorboards?!" she suddenly exclaimed.

Her reddish-brown hair swung around wildly as she looked back and forth.

"I was catching cockroaches."

"Do you realize how much money this is going to cost?!" she exclaimed. "Well, do you?!"

_More money than you have to spare, I'm sure._

"Just get the hell out of here." She muttered.

"Where shall I go?" I asked.

She picked my snake tank up off the toilet seat and pushed it into my arms.

"Does it look like I give a damn?"

She pushed me out of the bathroom and past a bedroom where three boys who looked almost identical leaned out of the room and sneered at me.

_That solves the mystery of who told on me._

"Sending him out already?" said another voice.

I turned to the couch to see a man with bright blonde hair juggling three kunai knives while lying down.

"He was prying the damn floor boards up!" Hidoi-san told him.

He caught the knives and stood up, smirking at me.

"He probably doesn't even know he did anything wrong."

She grabbed my head and shoved me toward the door.

"You keep on underestimating him." She told him. "The kid's a piece of shit. Thinks he can get away with everything by just pretending he's dumbfounded."

She pulled a glass bottle of sake off the table, tilted her head backwards and downed it.

"Remember when he wouldn't talk the first year or so he was here? Pretending he couldn't fuckin' 'ear nobody?" she slurred.

"Hey, I still think he really couldn't hear!"

He laughed and knelt down in front of my face.

"Nah...his parent's didn't teach him shit, that's all." he asked, leaning really close to my face. "The problem is that there's literally nothing going on up in that little pea-sized brain of yours...is there?"

I stared at him. The snake in the tank I was holding began slithering around faster.

_Kenichi-san. Age 20. Youngest brother of Hidoi-san. Also Genin Rank. In addition to constantly underestimating everyone around him and having a stupid sense of humor, he's also incredibly conniving and malevolent. He shouldn't be trusted...ever..._

Hidioi-san continued drinking as Kenichi-san stood up and opened the front door for me.

"Well, do what Mommy says, alright?" he asked. "It would suck to miss out on dinner five times in a row, wouldn't it?"

_I don't have a Mother._

She tilted the sake bottle, surprised to see she'd emptied it of its contents so quickly.

_Especially not one as inadequate as that woman._

He slammed the door in my face, leaving me with nothing but the dark, cloudy sky over head and the pitter-patter of rain. It was early in the morning but because it was thunder storming, the sky was black as night. I made my way up the path to the Academy in the chilly morning.

The snake in the tank I was holding slithered around and stuck it's tongue through the holes in the side. I pressed my face against the glass wondering if my closeness bothered it.

_Wait... Of course that won't bother it. Snakes are almost completely blind. Snake fact number 39._

I slowly found my way to the academy in the dim light of the streets. My ears perked up at the sound of construction. In the distance, workers were building on the mountain, constructing the face of the new Hokage.

I squinted through the drizzly rain and sighed. A foggy breathe of smoke wafted up in front of my face, reminding me how chilly it was. The snake in my tank pressed itself against the glass where I had my hands, rubbing itself back and forth.

_Unlike me, he could freeze to death. Snakes are cold-blooded creatures. Snake fact number 20._

I quickened my footsteps but it didn't make much of a difference in how quickly I got there. Though the academy was in sight, my feet and body were small. Around five minutes later, I pushed open the front doors to the academy and let myself in. It was silent, just like I expected it to be. I walked through the halls and stopped in front of my classroom door.

I flipped on the light and made my way to the chair I normally sat at. My spot was all the way to the left, next to the window. I normally sat there so that my snake could get a good amount of sunlight from sitting on the sill, though there was no sunlight that day.

I distinctly heard a couple of voices walking past the classroom and jumped, recognizing one of them. I left my tank on the sill and hurried to the door.

Just like I suspected, wearing a pair of navy blue pants and a dark green chunin vest he walked by with another man wearing royal blue pants and armor with a white cloak.

"Sensei?"

He turned and looked, sparing me a smile.

"Good Morning, Orochimaru." He said, patting me on the head. "Why are you always here so early?"

_Hiruzen Sensei. Age 23. Has been the "lackey" of the Hokage's ever since I've known him. And he's also the only person in existence who doesn't express an influx of negative emotions at the mention of my name. _

The white haired man with him cocked his head.

"Orochimaru?" he asked, then like some distant memory suddenly came to him, he nodded. "Oh, right. _That _child. How is he doing, Hiruzen?"

Hiruzen Sensei turned to him.

"He's in the first academy classroom like all the rest of the ones we tested. His teachers say he's a prodigy."

The man smiled widely in a cocky sort of fashion.

"See? What do I always tell you, Hiruzen?"

Hiruzen Sensei sighed.

"There aren't too many times when you're wrong, Tobirama-sama..." he mumbled.

"That's right! There aren't too many times when I'm wrong." The Hokage proclaimed. "In fact, I should probably change that to 'I'm _never _wrong'."

The Hokage bent to my level.

"You're living with a given family now, aren't you?"

_The Caregiver Program... _

I nodded.

"How is that going?" he asked.

I looked down.

"Fine." I replied.

The Hokage stood back up. Hiruzen Sensei and him exchanged glances.

_They don't believe me._

"Lots of things are going to change now that my brother has left this world." The Hokage said. "You can count on that."

They began walking again but I caught up and tugged on Hiruzen Sensei's hand.

"Sensei." I said. "My new snake's grown almost two feet."

He raised his eyebrows.

"Really?"

"Yes. And I've documented all sorts of interesting facts about them. For one, snakes scales are really dry and smooth. Not wet or slimy like you'd expect. And also, all snakes are deaf. I've discovered that they hear through vibration. And-"

"Saru-kun, hurry up, now. My inauguration meeting is happening soon and you need to be there to take notes."

Hiruzen Sensei scratched his hair awkwardly.

"Seriously, Hokage-sama? Must you call me Saru-kun in front of my pupils?"

He turned back to me and patted my head again.

"Forgive me, Oro-kun." He said. "I have to attend this meeting. But I'm glad you found a hobby."

"It's because you taught me about how snakes shed skin last month while we were practicing." I reminded him. "Since then, I've been studying them."

He nodded as he walked away.

"Great! Keep studying, Oro-kun. You'll be a ninja even smarter than I am!"

I watched him run down the hall to catch up with the Hokage with a frown slipping onto my face.

_Ever since Hiruzen Sensei became the new Hokage's right hand man, he's had no time anymore._

I turned, slowly walking back to the classroom, sticking my finger out and dragging it along the wall.

_But Hokage Hashirama only died less than a month ago and Hokage Tobirama is just being inaugurated today, so, it makes sense that he'd busy. _

I paused in front of the door, hearing an unnatural sound.

"Can't believe the idiot would leave it here by itself..." a voice sounded.

"Hey, let's throw the whole tank in the garbage!" another voice suggested.

I quickly pushed the classroom door open. The three boys who had been crowding around my cage turned and looked at me. I could feel my stomach dropping. They all smirked at me, mouths slanting to the right side in the same crooked way.

_Koto, Toru and Sen. Ages 9. The dark brown haired, green eyed triple threats who spend every waking moment of their lives making _my_ life a living hell. _

Even though they all looked basically identical, they wore their dark brown hair in different styles. Koto's hair was short but covered his ears and swooped across his forehead like he was wearing a helmet of hair. Toru's was parted in the center of his head and longer than his brothers but still didn't touch his shoulders. Sen's hair was really spiky and full most of the time, sticking straight up off of his head.

_And not only do they harass me at school. But they also have the pleasure of terrorizing me at home, seeing as how they're Hidoi-san's biological offspring. _

"_Now_, what do you want?" I asked them.

Koto grinned.

"Betcha didn't like it getting kicked out the house again, huh?" he asked, completely ignoring my question.

While he was distracting me, Sen grabbed the tank, shaking it back and forth. I sighed, walking over to him.

"Stop, you're making him cold." I said.

Koto laughed.

"How the heck do you know? Are you a snake whisperer now?" He asked.

Toru pulled the window up and beckoned Sen.

"Hey, bro. Launch him out the window."

That caught my attention.

"Give him back!" I yelled.

I tried to grab Sen but Koto and Toru held me back.

"I'm serious, guys! Leave him alone!"

"You gonna cry, Snake-boy?" Koto asked.

Toru laughed.

"Snake geek! Snake geek!" They chanted in unison.

Toru grabbed my hair roughly.

"Alright, we won't throw it out if you kiss my shoes." He said.

Koto leaned on me, forcing me down onto my knees.

"Go ahead, you pale-skinned freak. Do it."

Behind me, I could hear the other children in our class coming into the classroom. I prayed the teacher would come soon but it was unlikely. She wasn't someone who would come to my defense anyway.

Faced with not many available options, I quickly bent my head and pressed my lips to his wet, mud tracked shoes.

"Aw, gross! He actually did it!" Sen exclaimed from the window. "Hey, guys! Snake-boy just kissed Koto's shoes!"

The others filing in behind me roared with laughter.

"Oro's a snake-freak! Oro's a snake-geek!" Toru sang while continuing to push my face down.

"Snake-freak, Snake-geek, he kissed Koto's feet!" Sen sang along.

Very quickly, everyone began to sing along.

"Snake-geek, Snake-freak, he kissed Koto's feet!"

I tried to lift my head up but they both kept it pushed down. I didn't even care about the mockery. I just wanted to make sure Sen hadn't tossed my snake.

"Sen!" I shouted. "Give him back!"

"Give _what_ back?" he asked in a fake innocent voice.

I forced my head up, eyes widening.

The tank was empty. I jumped to my feet, pushing past Sen and sticking my head out of the window. I could see the whip of a tail burrowing itself into the dirt. I couldn't stop my bottom lip from trembling.

_I didn't even get to name him yet..._

I pressed my hands against the window. Staring at my reflection in the rainy window. The person staring back at me had a solemn face with blank, dead looking eyes. Beneath those eyes, wetness collected, threatening to spill over.

Everyone held their sides, cracking up with laughter.

"Look at his face!" Koto yelled. "He's gonna cry!"

I stared at my reflection.

_Orochimaru. Age 6. Orphaned. Pale-skinned with oddly colored eyes and abnormally long hair. Hated among peers and ignored among adults... Worthless..._

"Why don't you jerks leave him alone!?" A voice carried on.

I froze.

_Sensei?_

But it wasn't Hiruzen, it wasn't even Koharu Utatane, our academy instructor. It was a girl I'd never documented before.

She walked over to me and the triplets with her hands on her hips.

"I'm sick of coming to class everyday having to hear all this stupid chanting from you guys." She said. "Go get a life."

"Hey, it's not our fault! He's a weirdo! He's crying over a stupid snake." Toru said.

"Coming from the guy who acted like the whole world ended when he scraped his knee in kunai practice yesterday."

Toru shut up quicker than lightning.

"And Koto, you shouldn't be talking about anyone, you still haven't passed substitution jutsus yet, Orochimaru's known how to do them since first day of school!"

He crossed his arms and stuck his lip out.

"And Sen, word on the street is, you still sleep with a teddy bear, you lameo!"

His face turned beet red and he turned on his brothers.

"You guys told!?"

She walked past them and over to me. Her pale blonde hair was pulled back into a ponytail and multiple thick locks of hair framed either side of her face. Her light brown eyes locked on mine.

"Wipe your face, man. You're embarrassing yourself." She said, crossing her arms.

I lifted my kimono sleeve to my eyes and rubbed back and forth quickly.

"Hey, Tsunade! Come look at this!" a girl said, beckoning her.

She turned, looking toward a group of girls in the back of the classroom where she normally sat.

"Okay!" she said to them, then she winked at me. "Cheer up."

I stood there, watching her walk away for a moment. Already in their seats, Koto, Sen and Toru and their friends made faces at me.

_Those guys will _never_ stop torturing me... But still, I'm at least slightly grateful for their existence. If it wasn't for them pushing me off the pier that one day, I wouldn't have gotten close to the _one_ person in this world who doesn't hate me._

I slowly walked back to my seat in the front row on the far left side, directly opposite from where the girl went up to sit, on the far right in the way back. The two seats next to me were open. Everyone whispered to each other, mocking me behind their hands.

_No one ever wants to sit next to me..._

Right after Koharu Sensei came in, a boy with spiky gray hair sauntered into the classroom, yawned and took the seat next to me.

_Except for him._

I glanced at him, watching as he immediately put his head down on the desk and closed his eyes.

_Jiraiya. Age 6. A lazy, thoughtless kid who never raises his hand in class or knows the answer to any question. Seems to pass just the bare minimum of exams to not get held back._

Even though the seat closer to the aisle and father away from me was open, he chose to sit in the one directly next to me instead. I chalked it up to the fact that it was father away from the teacher so he could sleep less noticeably. I had long since then decided that he sat next to me because he didn't have a choice, because he was always late for class, not because he actually wanted to. But that day after sleeping through most of the class instruction like normally, something different happened. He sat up, stretched, yawned and then looked over at me.

"Where's your snake?" he asked, blinking sleepily.

The tank in front of me was empty. I had spent most of the lesson, which I was already familiar with from reading, just staring at it.

"Sen threw it out of the window." I responded.

"Ahhhh." He said. "That sucks."

And even though it was a passing comment and not any declaration of friendship or assistance, I never forgot it. Because...unlike any other school day I had ever had in my life, twice that particular day, a person had addressed me like I was...normal.

Other than staring at my tank, I had also been keeping mental tabs on the blonde haired girl that stood up for me. She spent the majority of class gossiping in the back of the room with her girlfriends. I even noticed them, at one point, trying on some feminine lip product and sharing nail paint. But then, when the teacher randomly called on her, asking her to say Rule 89 from the ninja handbook, she answered without even looking away from her nail painting.

"A true ninja never shows emotion."

_This girl... Must be book-smart._

"Good job, Tsunade."

The rest of the day went on drearily. I was glad when Koharu Sensei clapped her hands together and waved us off.

"The academy is so boring." Jiraiya mumbled as he got up, to no one in particular. "I'll be glad when..."

He trailed off, mumbling indistinctly and walked off with his hands thrust into his pockets. The other children sitting in the rows behind us also got up and fled down the stairs, happy to be let out, even if it was a painfully rainy day. I grabbed my empty tank and followed after them.

_Glad when what? _

I shuffled my feet, kicking loose rolled up paper balls in the hallway and staring down at the floor.

_Glad when we finally become ninja? But... What'll happen then? Except our immanent deaths..._

I was the last one out of the building. I made my way down the steps and rounded the building over to the side. I looked up, positioning myself directly under the window that I sat next to in class and then looked down, searching for any trace of the snake. I didn't even know why I was looking. There was less than a 3% chance that he would still be there.

_Snakes move fast across land. Snake fact number 19._

I sighed, turning and walking up the path. It was still drizzling. More than anything, I hated drizzly days. Days where the sky seemed to be threatening to just pour but couldn't quite get up the courage. It reminded me of myself.

_One day, I'm going to stop drizzling and being cloudy..._

I thought about Toru and Koto and Sen.

_And then, I'll start raining and soon..._

I looked up at the sky which burst with a streak of lightning.

_I'm going to THUNDERSTORM!_

The thought made a smile spread across my lips. I normally didn't smile. The sensation was strange.

_Then they'll see. They'll _all_ see._

I walked up the front rotted, moldy steps of the apartment. Though, I hated the wood-built apartments that outlined the poorer areas of Konoha, I couldn't help but admire it. The first thing we ever learned in the academy was that Hashirama Senju, the first Hokage, built most of the village by himself with his Wood Kekkei Genkai. When I learned about Kekkei Genkai's like that one and the water one Tobirama Senju had and even the Sharingan that the Uchihas had, I spent hours, days, weeks reading books on it, trying to see if there was a Kekkei Genkai I could've had. Something... Anything to make me special, but... I didn't even know what clan I was from. So, how could I know something like that?

I stopped pulling on the door knob and began knocking.

_I don't know anything about myself..._

I knocked louder, not at all surprised to see three grinning faces peeking out of the window next to the door. They pulled the blinds down, quickly retreating inside the house.

_Not my clan, or surname, or even who my parents are... _

I did the calculations in my head and came to the conclusion that even if on the slight chance Hidioi-san was home, she was most likely passed out on the couch and wouldn't be aware of my knocking for at least another hour. And between going on multiple dates with girls all around the village and working, Kenichi-san was barely home during the day. Though, that was a good thing. He was the _last _person I wanted to answer that door.

I turned and found a spot on the old, rotted steps to sit down and watch the rainfall.

_All I really know is that...I don't belong here._

"Okay, Himiko! See you later!"

I looked up, seeing a whip of pale blonde hair running from around the corner of one of the other houses and walking up the street.

_It's her. The girl from this morning. Tsunade._

She crossed her arms, rubbing herself to keep warm and, by chance, glanced up at me sitting on the porch steps. She paused, squinting in the dull light.

"Orochimaru?"

I said nothing. I just watched her. I wasn't even sure _what_ to say. She came closer, looking up at the blackening wood around me and chipping banisters.

"Do you live here?"

I nodded.

"...Why are you sitting out here then?"

I didn't consider the truth for even a moment.

"I lost my key."

She nodded.

"Oh. Well... Aren't you cold?" She asked, then she shrugged. "I mean, my parents are throwing this dumb banquet at home in like five minutes. You should come with me. I'm pretty late anyways."

_...What?_

She squinted at me.

"You know... Food." She said, motioning toward her mouth.

"I know what you mean." I said. "But..."

"It just sounds weird, me asking you all out of the blue?" she improvised.

I nodded.

She smiled sheepishly.

"Well... I was actually going to take Himiko-chan. You know her? From class?"

I shook my head. I'd never even _heard_ the name Himiko before, much less put a face to it.

"Yeah, well she got in trouble for failing that last shuriken tossing exam, so she can't come." She said pouting. "So, I have an open spot."

I blinked at her. Still not understanding.

"Hey!" said another voice.

We both turned.

_Him, too? _

Jiraiya sauntered up to us with his hands behind your head.

"Your Mom said you were supposed to be home to get ready like an _hour _ago. Where you been?"

She scoffed.

"None of your beeze-wax, Jiraiya!" she replied. "I was just talking to Himiko!"

"Are you blind? That isn't Himiko!" he said, looking from me to her.

"Just never mind!" she shouted back, then she turned to me. "Come on, Orochimaru."

I stood up, feeling compelled more by obligation than by any interest in either of them or even hunger. I made my way down the steps, still holding my empty tank firmly between my hands when Jiraiya pointed behind me.

"You're forgetting your snake." He said.

_What?_

I turned around, eyes widening, realizing for the first time that, at some point, my snake had slithered behind me and had been resting on the porch the entire time. I set my tank down next to it and knelt down, offering it a finger which its tongue flicked over quickly.

_Snakes only touch their tongues to mammals for two reasons, to eat them, or to show affection. Snake fact number 10. _

The snake wasn't trying to eat me.

_Did the triplets...?_

Jiraiya bent down next to me, looking at it curiously.

"Looks like he likes you." He said.

_No... There's no way they brought him back. _

I picked him up and set him back in the tank where he rightfully belonged. Then, without another word, I picked up the tank and walked alongside them. Tsunade stood between us, talking to Jiraiya.

"So Mother actually sent you out to look for me? Please..." she muttered. "You probably found me on accident."

"Yeah, you're right. I'd rather see Himiko than you any day."

"Oh, shut-up." She said, then she sneered at him. "I hope the _help_ has done a good job making everything look nice, we have important guests over tonight, you know."

Jiraiya rolled his eyes.

"Whatever..."

_The help?_

It took me until we got to Tsunade's house that it all began to piece together for me. I almost slapped myself in the face for being so dull.

_Right, right... How could I have forgotten? She's _the _Tsunade. Tsunade Senju! Of descent of the first Hokage. Born into the Hokage family. How did I miss it?_

The gates to one of the largest homes in Konoha opened and we walked up the front path and onto the patio.

_Then, that means... This must be..._

"Finally!" a voice exclaimed.

I looked up. A young looking woman with long gray spiky hair, dark eyes and light brown skin put her hands on her hips as she opened the door.

"Princess Tsunade, your mother wanted you here an hour ago!"

Tsunade shrugged offhandedly.

"I was just looking for my friend."

The woman sighed wearily.

"Alright, well... Hurry on now." She said, holding the door open, allowing us all to slip inside. "And you!"

She wagged her finger at Jiraiya as he walked past.

"I sent you out thirty minutes ago."

"It's not even my fault, Mom. I couldn't find her." Jiraiya protested.

_Mom?_

"Rai-chan, you know how important this banquet is to their family!" she scolded.

I stared, wondering why Tsunade, who was tardy one to begin with was dotted on while Jiraiya was yelled at. Jiraiya's mother turned back to Tsunade.

"Princess, please go and change into your good robes. Your mother, father, Uncle and guests are awaiting you."

She nodded.

"And what is your name, Shoujo?" the woman asked me.

Jiraiya began snickering and Tsunade frowned.

"He's a boy, Jun-san!" Tsunde called, as she rounded the corner.

"Oh!" Jun-san, Jiraiya's mother, exclaimed. "Sorry, your hair is just so... Uhm... Nice looking."

Jiraiya was laughing so loudly, he bent over. His mother shoved his head down.

"Stop playing and go sit at the table." She ordered.

Then she looked at me.

"I'm so sorry, your name?"

"Orochimaru." I stated.

She cocked her head.

"That's unique..."

_Just say what you mean... It's weird. My name is weird. I look weird. And I don't belong here._

"Rai-kun, come take your friend and seat him."

Jiraiya sighed.

"He's not _my _friend. Tsunade's the one that invited him! You wouldn't let me invite my _real_ friends!" He complained.

"Because if I had, you'd have turned this entire manor upside down." She said, tapping him softly on the nose. "Now, go do as I say."

She slapped him playfully on the bottom and he spared her a smile and then nodded at me.

"Come on."

I followed him up a different hall which seemed to stretch on for days.

"This place is gigantic." He said. "But it's what you'd expect of royalty."

"Your mother works for her family." I stated.

It wasn't a question. I'd observed enough to know the answer. He nodded.

"Yeah, my Dad does, too. She's the maid. He's the chef. We basically live here." He said, then he rolled his eyes. "That's why you might hear Tsunade call me one of her house slaves."

"That's not kind." I said.

"Duh. She's a _princess_. What'd you expect?" He said smirking. "I'm actually really surprised she invited you. Usually, something like that would stain her 'popular girl' reputation, right?"

I shrugged, staring down at my snake which slowly chased its own tail around the tank until we stopped in front of a doorway.

My eyes widened as I saw a room large than one I'd ever seen in my life with a long, shiny dark brown wooden table that looked like it had been scrubbed at least fifteen times a day. Fourteen matching chairs were placed at the table, six ones on each of the long sides and one at either head. There was an extremely large metal Konoha Leaf Emblem hung up on the wall behind the table and the fire swirl symbol that all the ninja wore on their chunin vests was molded into a large work of wooden art that was set in the center of the table.

Jiraiya led me to a spot toward the end of the table.

"Kids sit here." He said. "Tsunade will sit at the head of the table, right here, since she's the oldest of the children. And her father will sit at the head of the table down there because he's the man of this house."

He pointed to each of the chairs individually.

"You'll sit here, on the right edge, since you're her guest." He said. "And on the left edge, her younger brother will sit, and over here, next to him, is my seat."

"You memorized the seating chart?"

He shook his head.

"I know how these events work." He said. "Or at least I should, I'll probably be the third or fourth Hokage's hired help one day."

_But isn't he in the academy? I thought he'd want to be a ninja..._

I set my snake tank down in front of my chair and he pulled the chair out for me.

"Here you go."

Just as I was about to sit, he pulled it out from under me. I would've fallen flat on my back on the floor but at a split seconds notice, by the discrepancies in his arm and wrist movements, I realized what he was about to do and grabbed the edge of the table.

He laughed.

"Aw, you're no fun!"

"Jiraiya, stop harassing him."

I turned, ears perking.

_That voice._

"Hiruzen Sensei?"

Hiruzen smiled down at me. He walked into the room with two others. I recognized them all as ANBU level ninja.

_Koharu Utatane. Age 21. Only female in the 2__nd__ Hokage's personal six person squad. Also an instructor at the academy. She's a stern teacher that's constantly punishing me in class for not standing up for myself with the bullies, but a playful colleague and seems to really adore Hiruzen Sensei. _

_Homura Mitokado. Age 23. Also on the 2__nd__ Hokage's six person squad and one of the higher-ups on Konoha's first tactical espionage sector. Rather rigid in thinking. Disagrees with Hiruzen Sensei often._

They both surrounded Hiruzen after he addressed me, looking down at me questioningly.

"Who is he?" Homura asked.

"One of the students from my class." Koharu Sensei informed him. "Orochimaru, what are you doing here?"

"Tsunade invited him." Jiraiya spoke up for me. "He's her new plaything."

Everyone exchanged glances that seemed to hold a lot of weight and said nothing else. Jiraiya snickered. I didn't get the joke. Hiruzen sat next to me and patted my head like he normally did.

"I see you brought your snake."

I nodded.

"He brings that thing everywhere, doesn't he?" Jiraiya piped up.

I ignored him and addressed Hiruzen Sensei instead.

"Something happened this morning." I told him. "I think he followed me home."

Hiruzen raised an eyebrow.

"Followed you home?" He said, laughing. "It's a snake, not a dog, Oro-kun!"

"I'm serious. At school, Sen threw him out the window." I said. "And I looked for him after school but he wasn't there. Then, when I went home, he was on the porch, waiting for me."

"Are you sure it's the same snake?"

"Yes." I replied. "This is a special species. Remember when I told you? His dark purple color is very unique, and his scales make up a very distinct pattern showing that he's naturally from a drier region, and he's growing at an exponentially fast rate, meaning-"

"Whoa, whoa, you're losing me, Oro-kun. Slow down. I can't keep up with all your snake lingo. But, you're sure he's the same one?"

"Absolutely." I said.

He cocked his head, considering it, then an expression crossed his face, one I couldn't quite tell.

"If that's true, then..."

But before he could continue, more people entered. I raised my eyes to them. Another three- man squad, the three of them were the rest of the ANBU level ninja apart of Hokage Tobirama's personal squad.

_Torifu Akimichi. Age 22. A large guy with a big appetite. He normally didn't speak so there wasn't much I could derive from him. _

_Kagami Uchiha. Age 22. A more feminine looking man because of his unkempt, longish black hair. His personality was similar to Hiruzen Sensei's and they often cracked jokes together. His main difference was that he never knew when to _stop_ joking. He also consistently walked around with his Sharingan activated for "practice" though Hiruzen and Koharu joked that it was just because he liked to show-off._

And lastly...

The final man that walked in before the manor family was:

_Danzo Shimura. Age 23. A dark haired man with a bad attitude. I disliked him because he rarely addressed Hiruzen kindly, though Hiruzen was always respectful to him. Hiruzen Sensei revealed to me one day that they had been good friends in youth but Danzo was always plagued by jealousy. Everyone except Homura agreed to this declaration. Homura never agrees with Hiruzen and he always sides with Danzo._

Just as Jiraiya began impatiently tossing his spoon up and down, the last group walked in.

"Finally." He muttered.

Everyone stood up. Jun-san stood next to the dining room entrance holding the door as everyone walked in. I was late on the cue, just barely getting out of my chair in time.

Suddenly, as I watched the 2nd Hokage, his sister in-law and his niece, nephew, grandniece and grandnephew enter, I recalled the true first time I'd been introduced to them all.

My brain whizzed back to that memory...

"We are all gathered here today to respect the honorable death of our brother, mentor, father, and friend... Hashirama Senju. May you rest in peace."

I was there to see him get buried a month before then, though, I wasn't paying much attention. It was oddly a very sunny, cloudless day. The black robes that everyone wore looked out of place in the cheerful weather. I shuffled my feet in a bored manner wondering why I couldn't have just stayed home with the triplets and Hidioi-san.

It was around the same time that Hidioi-san's husband, who was a Jonin, had gone on a single man sneaking mission and was killed in action. Also, around the same time Hidoi-san began doing nothing but lying around, drinking sake...

Kenichi-san forced my head up.

"Show some respect."

It was then that I actually let my eyes travel over the family standing there. The family the First Hokage had left behind. He had died at age forty-six, rather old, not just for a Kage but for any ninja. Most ninja didn't make it past thirty.

"It's a terrible thing what happened to him..." a woman on my other side whispered.

The man next to her nodded.

"Such a respectable clan, almost wiped out that way... It's such a shame."

I faced forward again, realizing why so much importance was put onto that family. The last Senjus. I was only four when I was brought to Konoha. The disease was already there when I came, spreading among the Senju like wildfire. They were quarantined in their own separate part of the village so as to avoid infecting any of other the other citizens. Ultimately, they all died before anyone could discover a cure. I had discovered through old texts that the disease was a new strain of a poison that was created by medical ninjas during the warring states era. It was banned, said to be an immoral usage of warfare, but somehow, someway, it had resurfaced again. I assumed that the disease had also spread to Hokage Hashirama, which was how he died, though no one clarified. It seemed to be a very well kept secret.

A man stepped into the sunlight and everyone gave him an approving clap before he even spoke. His skin color was light brown like his father's and his eyes were hazel. He wore his black hair slicked back with a curl of hair swooping down over his forehead.

_Itama Senju. Age 26. First and only son of Hashirama Senju. Creator of Konoha's Tactical Espionage Unit. Incredibly strategic in thinking. Soft-spoken and slightly timid in personality. The exact opposite of his father, who was a very charismatic man._

"Thank you all for coming. I know you expect me to rise up under this unfortunate turn of events and take my father's place but... I decline." He told everyone.

A hush fell over the crowd.

"My Mother and I both agree that the spot would be better assumed by my dear Uncle, Tobirama Senju."

"Thank You, Itama-kun! I'd be happy to accept!" He declared, clapping his nephew solidly on the back. "Long live the Senju! And long live Konoha!"

Everyone cheered then, glad that someone was taking the throne. Everyone had most likely been holding their breath. If Itama had declined and had no clue who to give the crown to, the village likely would've lapsed into some kind of chaotic civil war.

_We're lucky..._ I had thought at the time.

"And though I don't have any children of my own, I'm certain any of my nephew's fine children would make great Hokages one day." He continued.

And that was when a woman walked forward carrying a baby boy and holding the hand of a pale blonde haired little girl that I slightly recognized from my academy classroom. Later I knew the woman to be...

_Tsuzumi Senju. Itama's Wife. A lively woman with pale blonde hair that she kept cut short, like a man's and dark green eyes. _

"I'm gonna be Hokage like Grandfather!" exclaimed the toddler in Tsuzumi's arms.

The crowd laughed lightly and blew him kisses, immediately falling in love with his child-like cheeriness.

"Bless the young generation!" Tobirama exclaimed.

And then Itama held up a light blue crystal necklace and slowly, as thought putting a crown on someone, draped it over Tsunade's shoulders. The entire place burst into cheering so loud I had to cover my ears. The people around me jumped up and down and jostled me and she was bestowed upon her father's shoulders. Feeding off of the emotion of the crowd, she pumped both fists in the air cheerily and everyone fist pumped back. Though it was supposed to be a depressing day, because of the actions of two children, it became very pleasant...

A pair of fingers snapped in front of my face. I blinked, turning and looking at Tsunade. She smiled at me.

"Zoned out already?"

I blinked again, shaking my head.

Everyone had seated themselves already while I was daydreaming and food was already being passed down the table. Jun-san and her maid assistants placed everything on the table neatly while the chef, who I realized was Jiraiya's father, stood by waiting for us all to eat.

"Stay with me!" Tsunade begged. "If you zone out, then the only people I'll have to talk to are these two."

She motioned toward Jiraiya who sat diagonal from me, balancing chopsticks on his nose, and her two year old baby brother Nawaki who continuously tried and failed to do the same.

"Stop copying him Nawa-kun, he's a loser." Tsunade ordered him.

"But, Oneechan, look, look!" he said, attempting to do it again.

I watched her smile at him fondly, allowing him to play with his eating utensils anyway.

_She seems to really adore him..._

"Oi, Shoujo." Someone said.

She ruffled his hair fondly and began making faces at him which caused him to let go of the chopsticks and laugh.

"Shoujo!" the voice continued.

The blue necklace around her neck dangled down. My eyes locked on it, realizing for the first time that she hadn't taken it off since that day. The more I watched her, the more I began documenting other things about her. The all white virgin robes she wore for the fancy dinner which matched her younger brother's. Her hair which was normally in a ponytail was down and flowed around her like pale yellow waves. Normally, I documented every single person I met. I liked keeping files. Keeping tabs. But she... Was different. Watching her wasn't an assignment like for everyone else. It was like a luxury.

"Oi!"

I whirled around. The entire table was silent. I realized that the voice I was hearing was someone calling me. Hiruzen scratched his head awkwardly.

"Aw, sorry. He's a boy." He said.

The person calling me, Kagami Uchiha, suddenly grinned.

"What? No way! If he's a boy, then_ I'm_ a girl!" He said.

"Well, with that hairstyle you got going on, I'd mistake you for a girl any day." Hiruzen joked.

All the adults at the table began laughing. Kagami sighed and shook his head.

"You're seriously a boy?" he asked squinting at me.

"Of course." Tsunade responded. "Can't you tell?"

Everyone stared at me blankly.

"Well, I guess if you squint your eyes like this." Mito said, breaking the silence.

Everyone looked at her and laughed. Though everyone was laughing at my expense, I didn't feel offended. It was more like they were laughing along with me, even though I wasn't laughing. The woman with flowing red hair tied into buns at either side of her head laughed the loudest.

_Mito Uzumaki. 1__st__ Wife of Konoha and Itama's mother. A light-hearted, comical woman who's personality was very similar to Hashirama's. It was always a wonder to everyone that they birthed such a quiet son._

"Well, anyway, I was gonna tell you to get your box off the table." Kagami said. "It's not proper table etiquette."

I turned to the left, realizing for the first time that I'd left my snake there. Just at that moment, for no reason in particular, my snake got up on its haunches and lifted its head far over the edge of the container, flicking it's tongue out in every direction.

"Oh my god!" Tsuzumi yelled.

"Is that a snake?!" Koharu screeched.

"Dear God, boy! Get it off the table!" Homura ordered.

"Jiraiya, is this one of your pranks!?"

A look of excitement crossed Jiraiya's face at the same time horror crossed everyone elses.

"No way! For the first time in my life, I didn't ruin the dinner!" Jiraiya exclaimed.

Feeling flustered, I quickly pulled the tank off of the table and set it on the floor but the damage was done. Everyone muttered irritably and looked uncomfortable. Nawaki was whimpering fearfully and Tsunade was trying to calm him. Jiraiya was the only one who smiled, titling back in his chair satisfied.

I sighed, staring a spot in the table.

_I'll never fit in..._

"Actually, it's a good thing you brought Orochimaru, Tsunade." Hokage Tobirama spoke up.

I lifted my head.

"You're at the top of your class, right?" The Hokage asked me.

Everyone was staring at me. My plate was finally placed in front of me. It smelled good but I didn't recognize it. Everything they ate in Konoha was foreign to me.

"I suppose." I replied.

"It's good for a Hokage to see the dynamics of the youth growing up." Tobirama said. "Take tabs of that, you all, it's always necessary to appeal to the youth like Hiruzen is doing."

I noticed Danzo rolling his eyes and looking away. Jiraiya dug into his food, not listening at all and Tsunade held some meat in front of Nawaki's face with chopsticks, prompting him to eat.

"And more importantly than that, the first rule I'm changing as Hokage is the Caregiver Clause."

Itama raised his eyebrows.

"But that was one of father's most cherished rules." He protested.

"I understand why he did it but it's faulty. I believe he said something along the lines of 'no good comes from a child devoid of the stability of parents', correct?"

Mito nodded as the servants cut her meat for her.

"I was orphaned." She explained. "And as children, he saw how good it was for me to belong to a family, even if they weren't blood related to me."

"While that's all very nice in theory, you can't avoid the facts." Tobirama said, picking into his meal. "It's not helping anyone."

"May I ask how?" Homura piped up.

"The only people available to be caregivers to orphans are Genin or non-ninja." He pointed out. "Yet, the majority of orphaned children have ninja parents of chunin level of higher. There's no way you can get a high ranking, efficient ninja from an inadequate caregiver."

"That's all circumstantial, Tobi-kun." Mito protested. "Even you yourself just pointed out that he's the top of his class. Perfect example of how well orphaned children can assimilate to society."

_You're all wrong... I'm a good ninja because I have nothing better to do than to train. It's not like I have friends or people who care..._

Strangely, though it seemed he was backed into a logical corner, Tobirama smirked.

"Ask that boy how often he's home."

They all turned to me.

I hated being put into the spotlight. Hiruzen nodded at me, giving me a soft prod to answer.

"Well?" Tobirama prompted. "What's the longest period of time you've been at home with your family?"

_Family? If he's referring to that frightening bachelor, his alcoholic elder sister and those terrible, awful triplets, all of whom I despise then..._

"Perhaps... Four or five hours at the most."

I directed my eyes back to my food as to avoid noticing the looks of shock shooting across all of their faces.

"And how often do you have a heartwarming conversation with your caregiver?"

I looked up at Hiruzen again and forced an answer out of myself.

"That...has never happened."

Tobirama crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair.

"I rest my case." He said. "Clearly, this boy has become a prodigy all on his own. I'm disbanding the Caregiver Clause first thing tomorrow morning and providing that all orphaned children should be moved to single apartment housing on the newly built side of Konoha."

"Isn't that where most of the Uchiha's live?" Kagami questioned.

"Yes but... I have a special arrangement for them." He said mysteriously.

Kagami looked puzzled and opened his mouth to speak but Hiruzen interrupted him.

"I agree with Tobirama's decision." He said. "Faulty rules should be revised. I'm sure Hashirama-sama would have understood."

With the mention of Hashirma's name past-tense manner, the table silenced. Despite the fact that it was a cheery event, it was still the private inauguration dinner after the death of the first Hokage.

I turned back to eating the hard boiled eggs on my plate, trying to be as silent and subtle as I possibly could as not to ruin anything else. My eyes just so happened to settle on Tsunade who stuck her tongue out at me playfully. I quickly looked away and over to Jiraiya who pointed at the adults who began conversing about other political matters and then pretended to cut his throat with his finger as if to say "just kill me now".

_This is so strange... This morning began regularly... I was kicked out of the house like I was every morning. I was picked on by the triplets, also just like every morning. And I was humiliated in front of the entire academy class..._

"Rai-kun, please take your elbows off the table." Tsuzumi, Tsunade's mother, ordered.

Jiraiya hovered picked his arms up an inch off the table humorously.

"Okay, but I don't know how long I can leave them like this."

Jun-san promptly came over and tugged on his ear, forcing him to act kindly.

"How was the academy today, kids?" Itama called from down the table.

Jiraiya rubbed his ear sorely and gave him a thumbs up.

"Fantastic, Otou-san!" Tsunade declared.

I looked down at my soup as I ate it, staring at my reflection.

_Just this morning, I was a nobody... And now, by some strange stroke of luck I'll never fathom, a person in my class actually took the time out of their day to stand up for me. And the boy I'd been sitting next to since my first day at the academy actually spoke to me. And even more than those things, I found a way to be sitting at a royal, private inauguration dinner with the Hokage's family and was even informally addressed by him twice._

"Is there is gonna be dessert?" Nawaki questioned.

Everyone, consistently baffled by his cuteness, smiled. Jun-san ruffled his hair tenderly.

"We have a big cake coming out soon, Nawa-kun, don't worry." Tsuzumi-san told him.

Nawaki and Jiraiya pounded each other's fists and whooped.

_I feel like I'm dreaming and I'll wake up any minute now with Hidioi-san banging on the door telling me to get out or the triplets dragging me down the stairs... But, if this isn't a dream, then that means I'm rid of all of them... Even Kenichi-san..._

When they brought the cake out, as some kind of tradition, the kids got to pick the first slices. We all got edge pieces, which everyone seemed to be really excited about, and then the adults got to have the rest. Everyone immediately dug in. The cake was shaped like the Uzumaki clan symbol and had rice and chocolate sprinkles. I slowly bit into it, for the first time in my life, tasting something sweet.

_Maybe... this really is... the best day of my life. _

And the more I thought about it, the more I realized it wasn't just because I was being included in one of the most important events in history, but because I was in the richest most prosperous house in the district.

There isn't a public place where old manuscripts and texts are kept yet. Hokage Hashirama said he would build one but never got around to it. However, I'm sure all the books he had in stock are somewhere around here...

In spite of the family-like atmosphere around me, my love for science and knowledge continued to glow brightly.

**Jiraiya**

**This Is Boring**

"Where do you think you're going?"

I sighed, rolling my eyes. My mother, along with the other maids, was placing all the plates and glasses onto her forearms and balancing them.

"We have to get this room cleaned up."

_Ugh, so boring..._

"You better grab that broom and sweep, boy."

_But this is what happens when you're a nobody..._

I took the broom and swept until I saw her round the corner then I promptly leaned it against the wall and bolted.

_So much for that._

I normally spent my time in the manor exploring by myself. If there was anything I loved to do as a six year old, it was exploring. I liked making up my own adventures and I normally took Nawaki on my crazy expeditions. I poked around looking for his toddling figure, hoping Tsuzumi or Mito didn't put him to bed already, when I walked past the library. My eyes jumped up, realizing the weird kid, Orochimaru, was standing there with his snake tank surrounded by a mountain of books.

"What are you doing?"

He jumped, whirling around, wide-eyed, like he was doing something wrong. I walked up to him and read over his shoulder.

"Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama: Peacemakers or Warmers..." I read, squinting.

"It's pronounced Warmongers." He corrected me.

I shrugged and walked around him. I had just learned how to read only three months before then. To me, pronouncing peacemakers right was a plus.

"Whatever it is, it looks boring. What the heck are you doing in this stuffy old place anyway?"

He said nothing and turned around, reading again. I sighed, realizing for the first time that in all my adventures of the manor, I'd never come across that room. Just for the sake of doing it, I decided to look around.

Other than the books Orochimaru had piled in front of himself, there were piles of books, papers and manuscripts everywhere.

Just by coincidence, my eyes focused on a pile of books that were set up a bit too perfectly. It was more than dozen books stacked up one by one on top of each other in perfect position like someone spent hours getting it just right. And the four stacks were placed against the wall in a perfect semi-circle.

My impish nature began seeping out.

_I'm gonna knock that whole thing over._

I walked up to it, coming eye level with one book that didn't resemble the others. It was rather thin in size and a bit colorful looking. I pulled it out of the rest of the books. The cover of it was so sleek, it didn't even move any of the others out of place, let alone topple to stack.

I blinked, having to stare at it for a while to understand the characters.

"Tourist...town...series?"

I flipped through the first couple of pages and widened my eyes at the pictures.

"Whoa!" I exclaimed, scrambling back over to Orochimaru who was sitting exactly where I left him.

"Check it out, check it out." I said, pushing the book in his line of site. "This book has naked girls in it!"

Orochimaru pushed my hand out of his way, straining to continue reading what looked like complex kinjutsu algorithms about snakes.

"That's boring." He muttered.

"Dude, what_ you're_ doing is boring. You're such a Snake-geek."

He seemed to visibly bristle and he turned his body to me at an angle, as though he expected me to attack him or something. I knelt down next to him.

"Hey, if you read me this book, I'll be your best friend."

He stared at me, looking from the book, to me, and then back again.

"You need to learn how to read fluently by yourself." He told me. "Or else, how are you to master any kind of Ninjutsu?"

I crossed my legs and sat next to him.

"Can't you tell? I'm not going to become a ninja."

"You attend the academy."

"The only reason I go is because when Hashirama was alive, he made me." I told him.

It was about a year before when I was watching him train Tsunade. They were supposed to be training in dojutsu but mostly, he was just teaching her how to gamble.

"And what do you do if you have no card that rivals that one?" Tsunade asked.

"Then you flip the table over and split!" he exclaimed.

Tsunade laughed and he patted her on the head. Nawaki was too young to speak at that time. He was barely walking, toddling around on unstable legs. Hashirama bounced him up and down on his lap as he played cards with Tsunade.

"Rai-kun, is that you hiding back there?"

I walked out with the broom. Even that day, I was supposed to be sweeping up the hallway but I wasn't. He turned and smiled at me. People said that his smile could make a grown man melt. While it was very comforting and it put you into a deep sense of security, I felt no compassion toward him. He was just my parents' boss.

"You want to practice jutsu with us?"

I looked down.

"I have to sweep." I replied.

"That's boring." Hashirama said.

I looked up, eyes wide.

_Did he just say...?_

I'd never heard an adult say _anything_ was boring before.

"Jutsu is fun. I was just about to teach Tsunade how to knead chakra. Ready, Tsuna-chan?"

"Ready, Grandpa!"

Hashirama set Nawaki down in the grass and they all stood up and walked to the center of the wide field behind the Hokage manor.

He modeled for us, pressing his hands together. Though, I couldn't see anything different about it, I felt it. A slight change in the airwaves?

Tsunade and I tried to do exactly as he had done. It took seconds, then minutes, then close to an hour. Nothing was happening. We weren't bursting with the kind of energy I'd felt from Hashirama. I could feel a slight bit of energy coming from Tsunade but absolutely nothing coming from myself. Nawaki had crawled around us at least ten times and by then had fallen asleep in Hashirama's lap. He sat in front of us, looking at us both intently. Even though so much time had passed, he didn't get bored. His eyes flicked back and forth between us like it was a sport. I finally, stood up and shook my head.

"It's no use." I said.

"Ninja have to be patient, Jiraiya." Tsunade scolded, also relaxing.

"Well, we can take a break." He said. "The Academy I'm building won't be open for another week."

"Academy?" I had asked.

"Yeah. There, you'll both formally learn the skills of a true ninja so you won't have to depend fully on your parents for training." He said, then he grinned. "One of my brighter ideas."

"I can't go to an academy." I had replied. "Who's going to sweep the stairs?"

Hashirama walked past us with Nawaki sleeping on his shoulder and ruffled my hair in a comical way.

"Who cares?" he asked me.

And that was the day I realized that I didn't_ have_ to care. I didn't have to care about anything if I didn't want to. I hated the academy. I felt like a true nobody there. I was the only one who didn't know at least 75% of what the teacher was talking about from their parents. Koharu Sensei also moved too quickly for me to grasp any concepts solidly. And more than that, it was difficult even trying. I gave up the first day and only attended because I had to.

Orochimaru watched as I tossed the dirty magazine from one hand to the other.

"My parents are servants." I said. "I'm nobody."

He smiled at me. It was strange, seeing such a homely looking kid smile.

"If you have a chance to be something different, you should make the best of it." He said.

I thought back on my parents. Though my mother, a slim brown skinned woman with long hair that matched mine, was very stern and demeaning, it was clear she loved me more than air. Even when ordering me around like a dog, she had time to spare me a weary smile. And anytime my father, a burly, brown haired man with lighter colored skin and red paint markings on his face that matched mine, cooked a large dish for the family, he let me steal a taste even though it was against rules. They were very genuine people. Hashirama consistently said he asked them to be in his house because they were, most likely, the most trustworthy people in Konoha. And when he told them that he wanted me to go to ninja school, they were ecstatic. Like being a ninja and putting my life on the line everyday would make them the proudest parents on the planet. Though, when I began failing everything, they both got a lot less enthusiastic and began teaching me servant traits again...

_Maybe I really am in control of my future?_

Neither of my parents could read and thus, never taught me. I had tried to learn at school but reading was something I was already supposed to know and so everyone breezed through it and, bored to tears, I slept instead. In any case, all of the books I'd ever read in my life were boring, just black words on white paper about how to throw shuriken or do a particular jutsu. But the book in front of me was much more attractive. The pictures were all colorful and very well drawn and the words were large and not too long or exhausting. I wanted to read it, not because it was perverted but because, unlike any of the other books I'd ever encountered in my life, I felt like I_ could_ read it.

"Fine." I whispered, nodding to myself. "I'll figure this book out. You can count on it."


	3. Chapter 3

**Orochimaru**

**The Beginning of the Team**

Jiraiya collected as many of those books he could find hidden there and stacked them in front of him. He snickered as he read.

"Who knew Old Man Hashirama was such a pervert?" I heard his whisper to himself.

"Rai-kun!" a voice exclaimed.

We both whirled around. A man with wide, honest looking onyx eyes and short dark brown hair entered the room. He wore a chef's uniform and had his name inscribed on a plastic tack on his shirt.

_Hajime. _

"Uh... Hey, Dad, what's up?" Jiraiya said, grinning sheepishly.

His father's eyes widened.

"Jiraiya, what are you doing!?" he exclaimed, looking at the mess of books around us. "You're making a big mess! Itama or Tszumi could walk in any minute!"

"I was helping him learn to read." I spoke up.

Jiraiya glanced at me with raised eyebrows. His father's frightened expression turned to surprise.

"...Really?"

Jiraiya nodded hard.

"Yeah, I have to learn or else... You know... I'll fail school." He improvised.

His father let out a large breath, taking the excuse with no questions asked. He walked up to Jiraiya, squatted down next to him and patted his head.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you." He said. "It's just that... You know how important it is that we keep working here."

Unlike his mother, his father had a much calmer voice and demeanor. He kept looking back at the door fervently like he was afraid that someone would walk in any minute.

_He looks like a coward with a low self concept..._

"I know, Dad." He responded.

He smiled and pulled Jiraiya in for a hug but when he did, his eyes widened as he saw the open book behind him.

"Rai-kun! These books...they aren't for little kids!"

I sighed, getting to my feet.

_This is not a problem I can fix._

"I know but they're the only books I can understand. All the other books I have to read for class are too hard." He complained. "And I have to learn or else I won't pass."

I book marked all the pages I was on in all of the different books, picked up my tank and walked off. Behind me, I heard his father sigh exaggeratedly.

"Alright... You can have them. But on two conditions. Only until you learn how to read! And you can't tell your mother!"

Jiraiya laughed.

"Will do, Dad!"

I glanced back at them as I stood in the doorway and stared.

_He claims he feels like a nobody... But his parents certainly see him as somebody, or else, why would they try so hard to keep their jobs?_

I wandered through the hall with my tank listening to the dull sounds of happy, healthy voices.

_I need this place. The information they have in that library is of the likes I've never even dreamed of._

My snake got up on its belly again, swaying back and forth quickly as though dancing.

_That's why I helped Jiraiya... Because I know that, in order to get to that library, I must make friends with those two._

My snake turned and looked at me.

_But... I doubt that I'll be able to do it. I'm certain that... Neither of them will even remember my name tomorrow._

"Are you talking about the pale looking kid?"

I froze. On my way to the exit, I had passed a slightly ajar door. Upon pushing it open, I found it led down a spiral staircase.

"Yeah, you know? The one with the weird eyes." Another voice said.

"His name is Orochimaru. Please, call him as such."

I discreetly made my way down the rocky, cobblestone staircase until I could peer into a brightly lit room. Hiruzen, Tobirama, and the rest of the ANBU jounin sat down in chairs, smoking cigarettes and sipping sake.

Koharu frowned.

"You know, I wouldn't be surprised if, in about a week or so, that kid dies of the Senju plague. Doesn't he look sick to you guys?"

Everyone scoffed, not taking her seriously.

"You're always trying to diagnose someone with something." Danzo mumbled.

"I'm just calling it like I see it!" she said. "He _is_ my student."

"Speaking of which, the reason I brought it up is because I wanted to be sure with you." Hiruzen said. "Did one of your students truly throw his snake out of the window this morning?"

She shrugged, pouring a bit more sake into her glass.

"The kid gets picked on basically every day." She said. "I've just starting ignoring it so I can't tell you for sure."

"You're encouraging bullying?" Kagami questioned.

"Of course not, but he's a ninja!" she pointed out. "Yeah, they're six year olds, but the quicker he learns no one is going to play Mommy with him, the better."

_Exactly like her... Stern and by the books until the very end. In her eyes, no ninja, however old, is a child._

"Easy for you to say." Kagami said, bowing his head. "You know... I used to be bullied."

She gave him a softened look.

"...Really?"

He burst into laughter.

"Heck no!" he exclaimed.

Everyone joined in with him except the 2nd Hokage who readdressed Hiruzen Sensei seriously.

"You're telling me the snake got up and found its way to his house all on its own accord?" The Hokage asked.

"So what? The snake's well trained." Homura said.

"Yeah, the little sucker probably knows the kid's the only one who'll feed it." Torifu said.

_Wrong. Snake's cannot be tamed or trained. Snake fact number 12._

Hiruzen Sensei sighed.

"Snake's cannot be tamed or trained." He recited.

They all raised their eyebrows, even Tobirama.

"How do you know that?"

"Oro-kun told me. He...documents them. He's steadily been creating 'facts' about their lives and habits and will spout them off to you any chance he gets."

"Aw, how cute." Kagami snickered.

"Sounds kind of freakish to me..." Koharu mumbled.

"In any case, I believe he's actually done with snakes something that no one before him ever has."

Danzo and Tobirama's eyes widened simultaneously.

"You mean..."

"Created a new summoning animal." Tobirama said, nodding. "Of course..."

"A new what?" Homura asked.

"As you all know, summoning animals are creatures people must make contracts with in order to use in battle." Hiruzen explained as he paced back and forth. "But what most people don't know is that for a contract to even be created so humans can sign them, one human, a very special one, must make a bond with an animal that is so powerful that the animal acts as a summoning animal without having a contract. Thus, the animal grows an affinity for ninja and then makes contracts with other humans."

"So, you mean, once there was a guy that really, really like monkeys and could summon them without a contract and now, because of that, _you_ can summon them?" Torifu asked.

"It's more complex than that." The 2nd Hokage said. "The first contractor has a relationship with that animal greater than that a regular contract can make. Instead of just appearing for battle and disappearing, the contractor has the prolonged support of that animal forever, throughout their natural lifespan. It's like an unbreakable bond."

Tobirama leaned back against the wall, pensively staring at his cup of sake.

"And what's even more remarkable is that snakes were the one animal no one believed could ever be turned into a summoning animal. They're too dangerous and isolated. Because of that kid's obsession with them, it seems that he's just opened up an entirely new world of jutsu."

Hiruzen smiled.

"Well, he _is_ special... Brightest kid I know."

I looked down at the snake in my tank feeling overwhelmed.

_Does he...really mean that?_

"I'm dismissing the rest of you." Tobirama declared. "There's something I want to ask Hiruzen."

"Something that none of us can hear?" Danzo questioned.

Homura nodded in agreement.

"Patience." Tobirama told them. "I'll explain it to you all later."

They all did the quick hand movements for transportation and disappeared from the room.

"Yes, Hokage-sama?"

"I'm thinking that... I'll trust you with a job more important than all the others." He said.

Hiruzen raised his eyebrows.

"As Hokage, I now have the power to directly choose which children from the academy are assigned to which jounin instructors." He said, rounding his chair and facing him squarely. "I want you to be the Sensei of Orochimaru and Tsunade."

"Just the two of them?"

He tapped his chin and shook his head.

"No... Also, the servant's son, Jiraiya."

Hiruzen raised his eyebrows.

"May I ask why you're choosing them three?" he asked.

"Well, seeing their interaction at dinner tonight gave me a closer inspection on the type of children they are" he said. "As Tsunade's uncle, I've know her since birth and she's clearly a convergent thinker. The kind of child who believes there's always one correct answer to a question and never considers otherwise. This makes her stubborn and unidirectional in thinking but also very strategically strong."

"Jiraiya's the exact opposite. A boy who is so steady thinking about one hundred different things, when faced with a one-answer question that Tsunade would conquer without even batting an eyelash, he consistently falters. He's is a divergent thinker, incredibly creative, flexible and able to see multiple different ways to beat an opponent at a time. Though, he's lazy, with a lot of work, he could be an excellent combative ninja."

Hiruzen nodded.

"That certainly is true. Tsunade's book smarts make her shift more toward paper-work whereas Jiraiya's boisterous personality make him very hands on. But then... Where does this leave Oro-kun?"

He crossed his arms.

"That boy is incredibly unique. He seems to be able to think creatively and strategically."

"So you're saying he doesn't have a weakness?"

"Everyone has a weakness." He said, finally looking at him directly. "And if there's one thing I do know about human beings, it's that any person, man or child, which can lie without changing their facial expression even slightly should be watched very, very carefully."

My snake hissed. I was lucky that Tobirama began speaking again so they didn't hear.

"In any case, you know him better than I do. Figure it out yourself." The 2nd Hokage said. "Starting next week, they'll be all yours to do with them what you want. But handle them carefully, I sense that the three of them have more promise together, as a unit, than any other trio I've ever set eyes on."

Hiruzen laughed.

"I don't think Danzo and Kagami would be happy to hear that."

He shrugged.

"They'll live."

I turned, slowly tip-toeing up the staircase.

_If what he's saying is true then that means... No more academy... It's certain now. This has to be all a dream._

I continued on my way out of the house, stopped only by Tsuzumi-san, Tsunade's mother who carried a sleeping toddler Nawaki in her arms, and Mito-san.

"Going home already, Orochimaru-chan?" Mito asked me.

"It's a boy, Mito-san!" Tsuzumi reminded her exasperatedly.

"Sorry! Sorry!" she said, shrugging. "Orochimaru-_kun_, then."

"I'm sure Tsunade and Jiraiya are busy creating a game you can join." Tsuzumi told me. "You should stick around."

"My Caregiver asks that I be home at this hour." I lied.

"Aw, how unfortunate." Mito replied.

"But if it's okay with your family, I was wondering if I could come back again soon." I said.

"Of course." Tsuzumi said. "Anytime!"

They nodded and smiled kindly as I exited their house.

_Truly, this day should be marked down in my biography... The day I gained access to all of Konoha, and in extension, the world's classified war files!_

**Three Can Do Together**

The door burst open and I jumped, scattering my papers that I had so painstakingly tried to organize by chronology, name and subject. I glanced up as Hidoi-san strode into the small, isolated bathroom I was forced to call my home.

"What are you doing?"

I said nothing and focused on trying to quickly pile the papers together before she realized they were important to me and ruined them.

She snapped her fingers in front of my face.

"Hey, dumbass. I asked you a question."

_It's not like you care what I'm doing anyway._

I succeeded in stacking the manuscripts and resolved to organize them again later. It had taken me almost all day shut up inside the library in the Hokage Manor to find records of war that was that good. But I was never able to actually enjoy them because that woman and the triple threats were constantly in my way.

"Fine then!" she shouted. "Pretend you're stupid. I don't give a damn."

She was turning to leave when something caught her eye and she paused. She pushed past me, bending over to grab my bedsheets which were folded up together in the bathtub, where I had to sleep at night. My snake had been curled up on it and as she picked it up, he fell to the floor, hissing angrily.

"What the hell is this?" she asked.

I didn't even turn to look. I knew what she was referring to.

_Here we go..._

She knelt over me, grabbing my chin and forcing me to look up at my bed.

"What. Is. That?"

_I hate this..._

"It was an accident." I said, staring blankly at the wet sheets.

"You remember what Kenichi said would happen if you pissed your bed again, right!?"

_...this place..._

"What did he say?!"

_I hate it so much._

"He said I'd have to sleep outside." I said quietly.

"Go!" she said, pointing toward the door.

She pushed me back to the floor.

"You're six damn years old!" she hollered at me. "Acting like people have money to wash your fucking sheets every damn day!"

_And you..._

I stared at the floor as I raised myself to my hands and knees.

"Get lost! And don't you _dare _come back unless we say so!"

_I hate you!_

"AHHHHH!" she suddenly screamed.

I whirled around. My snake had risen tall next to me and snapped at her. She stumbled backwards, falling backward into the tub with the wet blanket falling over her head. It continued snapping at her.

My surprise quickly vanished. Slowly, a smile crept onto my face as I watched it snap at her again and again.

"What's going on?"

All humor left my face. I turned, seeing Kenichi-san enter the room with his eyebrows raised. Hidoi-san pulled herself up out of the tub.

"I'm so fucking sick and tired of these damn snakes in this house!" Hidoi-san shouted.

She kicked out but instead of hitting my snake, which quickly slithered around her and out of the door, she kicked the wall.

"Fucking hell!" she cursed, hoping up and down.

_This...is funny._

But before I could even think of smirking again, she pulled her hand back, leaning down to bring it swiftly across my face but before she could make contact, Kenichi-san caught her hand.

"You really think he can control snakes?" he asked, snickering. "The kid's just a retard, Onee-chan."

Hidioi rolled her eyes, retracting her hand.

"Whatever." She muttered, pushing past me. "Just get the hell out of my house."

Kenichi-san leaned down and ruffled my hair. I cringed slightly as he neared me.

"You can thank me later." He said, winking at me.

I sat there long after he'd left, pulling the floorboards up so I could hide my books and papers down there. It was the only hiding spot I had. After that, I walked as quietly as I could through the hall. Luckily, the triplets had left the house early that day. I slipped outside, with my snake hot on my heels, jumping down the old, rotted porch steps and out onto the main street.

I wasn't too discouraged about Hidioi-san kicking me out because I had an appointment to make anyway.

It had been around a month since I was told I was graduating from the academy to join Tsunade, Jiraiya and Hiruzen Sensei as a team. Since then, I had been visiting Tsunade's house frequently to borrow, or steal depending on if they noticed or not, books and documents from the library. It was all I had to look forward to everyday. Consequently, I saw and spoke to Jiraiya and Tsunade almost every day. Unlike my previous assumptions, they didn't stop treating me like a normal human. Not only did they expect my presence in their home every day, it was almost like they looked forward to it... But I wasn't so stupid as to put all my bets on that.

If there was anything I really learned in life by the time I was six was that people never did anything for free. And if they told you that, they were lying.

My snake nudged my ankles as I walked and I smiled, bending down to pick it up. He wrapped himself around my shoulders and neck like a scarf and rested on me as I walked.

"Thank You." I told him.

In response, he nudged my hair and hissed softly.

"But I have to go to my first practice today. It would be dangerous for you to come." I pulled him from around my shoulders and lay him down on the grass in front of the rotten old wood house. "I'll come back later."

It didn't take long to get to the training field where I was due for my first day of practicing with Team Hiruzen. I was clearly around two hours too early. But I wasted the time, practicing Taijutsu and Ninjutsu as I normally did to waste time.

It wasn't long until Hiruzen joined me. And then, about thirty minutes later, the notoriously tardy duo joined us.

"You two are going to have to buy a watch if you're going to be ninja."

"Hey, I told her it was noon but no, she swore on her life you said it was later!" Jiraiya protested.

Tsunade put her hands on her hips.

"You told me that_ one_ time and it was yesterday!" she retorted.

Hiruzen sighed and clapped his hands together.

"Okay! Line up team!"

I stood on the right of Tsunade and Jiraiya stood on her left.

"I guess I should get to know you guys." Hiruzen Sensei said. "Since we're a team now."

"So, this is for real?" Jiraiya asked. "We're really Genin now!?"

Hiruzen shrugged.

"Eh, not quite. I suppose if there was ever an emergency and the village was attacked or all ninja needed to be deployed then, yes, you'd be classified as Genin but..."

"But we've definitely graduated from the academy, right?" Tsunade asked.

Hiruzen nodded.

"Yes, for the most part."

Jiraiya launched himself into the air using a chakra boost.

"Awesome!" he declared.

"But you won't be getting headbands until you can work efficiently as a team. It's something new the 2nd Hokage is trying." He explained.

I cocked my head.

"But if we're not Genin and we're not academy students then what are we?" I wondered.

He smiled at me.

"You're Team Hiruzen." He declared. "And as Team Hiruzen, we have to be like family, meaning, we have to know each other like the backs of our ninja scrolls."

He looked to Tsunade.

"Introduce yourself."

"My name is Tsunade Senju. I'm six years old. I'm the daughter of Tsuzumi and Itama Senju, granddaughter of Hashirama Senju and Mito Uzumaki."

"Anything else?"

"Uhm, I like to read." She said, then she looked at me and smiled. "But snakes scare me."

_Expected as much._

"Jiraiya, your turn."

Jiraiya, who was still chakra bouncing everywhere, stopped and grinned.

"Oh! Uh, my name's Jiraiya. I'm the son of Junko and Hajime, servants of the Hokage family. I'm also six." He said. "My parents call me Rai-kun but I hate that nickname."

"And...?" Hiruzen asked, prompting him.

"Uh... I like girls." He said, then he winked at Tsunade. "You can send me a love letter later."

She rolled her eyes and looked away from him.

"I guess reading and writing are the only things I dislike." He said, frowning.

"And you, Oro-kun?" Hiruzen Sensei asked.

"I'm Orochimaru." I said, then I paused.

_I don't know what else to say..._

I froze, mind completely blanking.

"Oro-kun?" Hiruzen repeated.

_What is there to say about me?_

It was quiet for a long time. It felt like years to me. And then another voice piped up.

"He's an awesome ninja." Tsunade said.

"Yeah, and he likes snakes." Jiraiya added.

I looked to them both. They stood there, contemplating the enigma of who I was.

"Oh! And he likes reading these huge books with all these big words." Jiraiya recounted, stretching his arms out wide.

"And he's kind of shy." Tsunade explained. "And quiet."

"Yeah, _really_ quiet." Jiraiya added.

Hiruzen smiled and rubbed the top of my head.

"I guess they already know you really well." He said.

I looked around at all them. Jiraiya grinned widely, Tsunade's smile was small and tender and Hiruzen nodded at me.

_Is that..._really_ me?_

My snake, which I could've sworn I left at home, slithered up next to me and nudged my leg.

Their eyebrows rose.

"Wow, I didn't see you bring your snake along." Jiraiya pointed out.

"I didn't." I replied.

_He just follows me... Everywhere I go..._

My mind flashed back to the conversation I'd overheard Tobirama and Hiruzen having and stared down at the snake in my arms, slithering onto my shoulders.

_Could my snake really be the original summoning animal of its species? _

"Did you name him yet?" Tsunade asked.

_Name... That's right, I haven't yet..._

Unlike Tsunade who was afraid of snakes and Jiraiya who would rather avoid them, Hiruzen Sensei bent down and stroked him.

_Maybe..._

"Hiruzen." I stated.

Hiruzen Sensei looked up at me and smiled.

"You wouldn't want to name him that. It's boring." He said, chuckling.

"You could shorten it to Hiru." Jiraiya said.

"You're disrupting the vowel sound then." Tsunade pointed out.

A visible question mark could've popped up over his head.

"Hiruzen's name is pronounced He-row-zen." She said phonetically. "If you shorten it to Hiru, it would make it sound like He-rue instead."

Jiraiya nodded as he began to understood.

"That's something a two year old would know, Jiraiya." Tsunade pointed out.

He frowned.

"I haven't completely figured out how to read yet."

Suddenly, her expression softened. She looked away from him.

"I said if you needed help, I could-"

"No." he said sternly. "I'll figure it out myself."

Hiruzen smiled and patted him on the back.

"That's a gusty statement, Jiraiya! You think you can?"

"I _know_ I can!" he declared.

I pondered the art of words in my mind momentarily and arrived at an answer.

"Hiro." I told them.

They all stopped and looked at me. I raised my snake and pointed to it.

"His name is Hiro."

Everyone seemed to be satisfied with the name almost immediately. Hiro, however, made his way off of my shoulders and slithered away, disappearing into the mass of flowers.

"Okay, before we start anything..." Hiruzen said. "Do you know why you three were chosen out of all the children at the academy to graduate so early?"

"Because you think we're awesome." Jiraiya said.

Hiruzen smiled.

"That's true, but not quite the answer I was looking for."

"Because you took pity on Jiraiya." Tsunade replied.

Hiruzen laughed.

"Try again."

"Because we'll be entering another warring period soon and we need to prepare the youth for all the bloodshed." I answered.

Everyone stared at me.

"Uh... Not that...either." he said, giving me a strange look.

He sighed, signaling the beginning of a story.

"Every human being has three types of genius." He explained. "I believe that each of you have practiced one of those genius types until almost perfection."

Jiraiya squinted in the sunlight, shaking his head.

"I'm no genius."

"Sure you are." He said. "You're a creative genius."

"Creative?" he repeated. "I don't do anything like that..."

"In class, have you ever felt out of place? Because you didn't answer the question the way you were _supposed_ to or the way everyone else did?"

Jiraiya nodded hard.

"All the time." He said.

"Give us an example."

"Well, one time, Koharu Sensei asked the proper way to discharge a line of shuriken." He said.

"The pick and flick motion." Tsunade said immediately. "You're supposed to grab and fling the weapon in and smooth simultaneous moment without slight hesitation."

_Perfect. Like she has a textbook right in front of her nose._

"I said a _dip_ and flick motion." He said grinning. "Putting your finger through the center and flinging it because then, you'd be less likely to cut yourself."

"Calluses are a ninja's best friend." Tsunade recited. "Injuries happen."

Jiraiya shrugged, kicking the dirt dully but Hiruzen nodded.

"You're both exemplifying what I mean." He said. "Jiraiya, the reason you're not good in school is because you're gifted with the ability to create, design and imagine. Only someone like that could think of a new way to use a shuriken."

His dismal expression turned to delight.

"I get it."

"And Tsunade, you're an analytical genius. You score such high marks in class because you're able to judge, analyze, and compare and contrast very well. Hence, your book smarts."

"That sounds about right." She agreed.

_That's exactly what the 2__nd__ Hokage told him... But the 2__nd__ also said he couldn't figure me out..._

"And Oro-kun."

I looked up.

"You're a practical genius."

I raised my eyebrows.

_I'm..._

"You're able to do best what these two can't. You can take Jiraiya's wayward theories and Tsunade's textbook answers and put them into practice. You're the bridge between them."

He looked at the three of us individually.

"With those three geniuses types; analytical, creative, and practical, you all can get each other's backs in a way no other team can." He told us. "You're a _perfect_ team."

A warm breeze lifted our hair, and our spirits. With those words of wisdom, we suddenly looked at each other with new eyes. I had consistently felt out of place next to them. Like they were a dormant disease, ready to explode and infect any second. In truth, I was frightened of them...what they were capable of doing to me. But with those words... I could suddenly see how I needed them...and how they needed me.

_This is strange... I've never felt like I needed a person before._

"Today, we'll just start with stretching and then we'll move onto body building later."

Jiraiya and Tsunade made faces.

"Whaaa?" Tsunade asked. "Stretching?! That's so lame!"

"Yeah!" Jiraiya agreed. "What about all the cool stuff?!"

He ran around showing us.

"Like Taijutsu! And Ninjutsu!" he said, running around and trying to do a mid-air kick.

He, somehow, tangled his legs in air and fell flat on his face. Tsunade rolled her eyes.

"You're making everything look worse." She mumbled.

"You have to crawl before you can run, guys." Hiruzen Sensei told us. "The real battle geniuses always have the basics down pact."

"This sounds boring." Jiraiya complained.

So we stretched. Which for me, was not even slightly taxing. But Tsunade was struggling and Jiraiya looked like he'd never stretched a day in his life.

"Himiko and Misa and I were close to doing a split once." She said. "But just that one time."

Days passed... And we worked... Every day, the other kids went to the academy learning theory and we practiced out in the fields. Soon, though it was around two months later of stretching, we began to notice our progress.

"Hey, look Tsunade, you're completely down in a split now." Jiraiya commented.

We were also working on body building, which was nothing more or less than brute strength. This, very interestingly, was where Jiraiya and Tsunade soared and I faltered.

"Push-ups look like this, Oro." Jiraiya kept reminding me.

_I know what it looks like... That doesn't make it any easier._

"Alright, now fifty crunches, no breaks." Hiruzen Sensei said. "Start...now!"

Life was atrocious those first couple of months but, like with stretching, we began to see progress with body building, too. After six months...

"Oro, touch my muscles." Jiraiya said, leaning his arm toward me.

I sighed, reaching out.

"Feel it? That's like a brick right there, man!" he bragged.

"So what?" Tsunade asked. "You still can't do a split!"

"Yeah, I can! Check it out!"

He slid down from where he was standing into one without a problem.

"I bet you still can't do that backflip you were messing up on."

"Yeah, I can, dummy!" she retorted. "Just watch..."

She lifted her hands straight up in the air and flipped backwards, pushing her hands into the dirt and then propelling herself back up onto her feet, and without a pause, she did two more in succession.

"See?" she asked, face pink from exercise.

Hiruzen had been watching all of us with his arms crossed.

"Have you been practicing your push-ups and crunches and everything?" he asked me.

I nodded.

Not only was I able to do more than a hundred push-ups and crunches by myself. I was also able to do at least fifty pull-ups from a tree branch with either Jiriaya or Tsunade hanging on me and the same amount of push-ups with either of them sitting on my back.

Hiruzen nodded, knelt down in front of me, and put his hands in front of himself like a barricade.

"Then punch me." he said, showing me his palms. "Right here."

I stared at him, unsure about what he wanted. I hesitated momentarily, cocking my head at him but he nodded encouragingly. I slowly raised my hand and obeyed, plunging my right fist into his hand. He pushed me back almost effortlessly, causing me to stumble a couple of steps back, nearly tripping over my own feet.

"Harder." He shouted at me. "What was that supposed to do? Tickle me?"

I punched again and he pushed me back and then again and he still pushed me back, even harder that time, knocking me back even more steps.

"Harder!" he yelled. "You're making me embarrassed to call you my student, Oro. Hit me!"

I was startled by his tone... But at the same time, angered by it.

_Is this what it was all along? His kindness... Just a way to get me to do what he wanted?_

I thrust my right hand into his, losing all restraint and going as hard as I could, he edged backward slightly.

"Come on, kick at me. Right now! Kick!"

I lifted my foot immediately swinging it and making contact with his left hand. He grabbed my foot roughly and tapped it.

"Exactly! That's what a kick is _supposed_ to feel like." He said, nodding at me. "Not that flimsy crap you were throwing earlier."

And suddenly, it was clear to me. My mind washed back to my first memory of fighting with him. Trying to grab his bells. And him telling me that I wouldn't ever succeed until I perfected my Taijutsu, which he described as weak, though stylish looking.

"Is...it perfect now?" I asked him.

He smiled, getting to his feet.

"Almost." He said. "But first, you still need a bit of practice. It needs to be firm like that every time. Be strong."

He snapped his fingers to the other two.

"Listen." He told us. "Ninjutsu, Genjutsu and Kenjutsu might look cool..."

He grabbed my arm and pushed my leg back, positioning my body so that my right arm was up with my elbow pointed down and blocking my body and my left arm was back, horizontal to my body. My right leg was bent forward and my left leg slanted backward. He positioned Tsunade and Jiraiya the same way, too.

"But Taijutsu is where it all comes from." He said. "And when you've got no chakra, no ninja tools, no sword and no sheath, where are you going to turn?"

He walked out, standing in front of us.

"But Hiruzen Sensei." Tsunade protested. "It's impossible to have no chakra. We'd be dead if that were the case."

"There's an old tale that says people didn't used to have chakra a long time ago." He told us.

My ears perked up.

_I just read about that legend... In a manuscript called "The Supposed Tales of the Uchiha Tablet"._

"And back then, what did they do?" he asked.

We all stared at him.

"They fought!" he declared. "And with what did they fight with?"

"Taijutsu?" Tsunade questioned.

He put his hand to his ear.

"I can't hear you!"

"Taijutsu!" we yelled.

"So what are _we_ going to use?!" He exclaimed.

"Taijutsu!" we shouted.

"Then let's begin again!" He bellowed, clapping loudly to gain our attention.

"Left kick!" he yelled.

We shifted our weight to our right leg, kicking out left as hard as we could.

"Right punch!"

We slammed our left legs down, thrusting our right fists out to that move, too.

"Left punch!"

We moved in unison, kicking together, punching together, and even making mistakes together.

"Jiraiya, why did you move that arm?" Hiruzen asked him one day.

"Sorry... I forgot."

"What was the reason I told you all not to move that arm?"

We were used to the routine and so he didn't have to shout to us what leg to kick or what punch to do. We continued moving around him in unison.

Left kick, duck down, dodge roll, right punch, left punch...

"Because that's our weapon hand." Tsunade answered for him. "When we have a kunai knife-"

"I asked Jiraiya!" Hiruzen interrupted her.

"Because..." Jiraiya said, struggling not to break formation. "Our left hand is for...throwing weapons."

"And your right?!" he asked.

"Redirecting attacks!" we all yelled.

Pretty soon, we were able to go up against each other. Jiraiya and Tsunade sparred with each other, easily back flipping across the training ground when need be or dipping into a split or back-bend to avoid an attack. Our footsteps were quick and almost weightless in sound.

In slightly less than a year, Hiruzen Sensei somehow had transformed a trio of rag-tag, elementary kids that barely enjoyed each other's company into a firm set of Taijutsu mastered comrades.

But there was still a score I had to settle.

"I'm ready now." I told him.

Hiruzen cocked his head, giving me a look.

"Ready for what?" he asked me.

I pointed at the bells that he still wore on his belt. I knew he kept them there simply to keep me engaged, egging me on that one day, I'd be perfect. As far as I was concerned, that day had come.

"I can take them now." I said.

He smiled.

"You don't want to try with Tsunade and Jiraiya with you?" he asked.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. After Hiruzen Sensei had seen how the bells could motivate me to shape up, he tried the same thing with Jiraiya and Tsunade, trying to get us to work as a group to collectively take them. It didn't work at all. It was when we'd first begin working as a team and Jiraiya was still too unorthodox then and Tsunade was too rash. Jiraiya ended up being caught in almost every single trap he set up...even the obvious ones.

I shook my head.

"Just you and me." I said.

Jiraiya and Tsunade, sensing something interesting was happening, stopped sparing.

He nodded, beckoning to me.

"Well, come on then."

I ran at him and he immediately kicked outward, I ducked down and rolled to his left side where the bells were. Before I could even try to reach, he grabbed my head, forcing it down and jumping over me. I darted for him, moving to dig my elbow into his ribs but he moved swiftly out of the way. I punched at him again and he tried to push my arm to the side but I was stronger then, firmer. I pushed back against him, grabbing his hand and bringing my knee up into his stomach but before I could land it solidly, he hopped up onto his toes, pulling his stomach up and out of reach and yanked his arm back, the one I was grabbing, forcing my head right next to his. Without even a second wasted, he pulled his head up and slammed it down into mine, knocking me back into the grass. I raised my hands to my forehead struggling to get back up to my feet.

Hiruzen Sensei turned around with the bells on his belt dangling along with him.

"Nice try, Oro-kun." He said. "Maybe one day..."

"No." I said steadily, getting back to my feet.

Tsunade ran to my side and Jiraiya tried to help me to my feet.

"Oro, just relax and-" Jiraiya said.

"No!" I shouted, pulling my arm away from him. "I can still fight! I can do it!"

Hiruzen stopped in his tracks.

"Oh?"

"Let me try again." I told him.

He looked over his shoulder at me. I expected his expression to playful, like it normally was, and he'd allow me another go, as many as it took...but instead, he seemed displeased.

"You lost, Orochimaru." He told me. "You know, there's practically nothing in this world that's worse than a sore loser."

"But I can-"

"And your focus is off!" he shouted.

I paused, watching as he lifted his forefinger.

"What one cannot do alone..." then he raised three fingers. "Three can do together."

Jiraiya and Tsunade watched him intently. I said nothing, eyes lowering to the grass.

"Until you understand that concept, you'll never prosper."

Even though almost a year had passed since we began training, it felt like I was still back at square one.

**Love and Hate**

I wasn't rid of the horrid family I despised as quickly as I had hoped. The 2nd Hokage's revoking of the Caregiver Program wasn't set to begin until the apartments for the orphaned children in the newer district was completely built. And with the First Hokage having passed, construction was moving at a snail's pace. Therefore, the entire time I was extensively training with Team Hiruzen, I was still on assisted living.

I woke up with a start, mouth open, gasping for air, and arms swinging around. Three faces loomed over mine.

"Hold him down! Hold him down!" one shouted.

"Help me with the water!"

I choked, tangling myself in the bedsheets as they poured buckets of water into the basin I had the misfortune of using as a bed. I gripped their arms, struggling to pull myself up but then they poured another bucket of water in and it all washed over my head.

My hair swam in my line of sight, warped and tangled. I bucked against them, pulling my head up past the surface.

"Let me g-"

They dunked my head again.

_If this goes on..._

I struggled against them, grabbing at their sneering faces with my fingers not closing on anything.

_They'll kill me._

I kicked out hard, sloshing water everywhere.

_I'll drown._

I pushed my head up again seeing Kenichi-san standing just outside the door, seemingly amused by the sight in front of him.

"Hurgghh!" I tried to shout before the pushed me under again.

He held his hand out in front of his ear comically like he couldn't understand me.

_I don't want to ask him... I don't want to... I don't want to... But I don't want to die..._

I used all my newly mastered seven year old Taijutsu strength to push them off me long enough for me to yell.

"Kenichi-san, help!" I shouted.

Hearing me call his name, the triplets turned around. He entered the room, rolling up his sleeves.

"What the fuck is wrong with you guys?" he asked them.

"We were just playing with him." Toru said, grinning.

"Yeah." Sen agreed. "Just innocent fun."

He smacked each of them in the back of their heads.

"Why don't you go try that innocent fun bullshit somewhere else and lay off the kid for five minutes, huh?"

"Sheesh, Kenichi-san..." Sen muttered.

They all turned, walking toward the door.

"You always play favorites with him." Koto added.

"Another word and I'll drop kick all three of you!" he shouted.

They ducked and ran, leaving me with nothing else to do except to pull myself out of the basin. Kenichi-san pulled a towel off the rack and walked over to me.

I pulled myself as far back as I could as he reached down and softly wiped the water from my face with the towel.

"Remember..." he said, smirking. "You owe me one."

He tossed the towel at me and turned around, leaving the water soaked bathroom. I looked up at Hiro who was trapped in his tank with a couple of books stacked on top of the opening.

_No wonder he didn't come to my rescue..._

But as I watched him, something else became apparent to me. The tank was pushed almost to the edge of the toilet seat...like it was about to topple to the floor.

_But the triplets wouldn't leave it like that... Or else, Hiro could attack them._

I leaned closer to the tank, pressing my nose against the glass.

"Hiro...are you strong enough to move your own tank now?" I asked him.

His tongue flicked out, licking the spot my nose was.

_It wouldn't be a far cry... He's grown _a lot_ larger in the past year... His tank's almost too small now._

"What the hell did you do in this bathroom!?" a voice rang out.

I didn't even have to guess. Hidoi-san stood over me, fuming. I'd never seen a person look like they were five seconds away from a stroke until that day.

"You're like a demon child sent from hell just to torture me!" she exclaimed.

Hiro got up on his haunches, hissing at her.

I didn't even bother telling her it was the triplets. I just got to my feet and turned the tank over, letting Hiro slither out.

"Step aside and let me leave." I said.

She looked down at the snake and rolled her eyes, stepping backwards and letting me out. I made a beeline for the front door, opening it to let Hiro out first. But before I could step out, too, someone grabbed my shoulder.

I turned, coming into contact with a thin, metallic objected that swiped across my face, from the corner of my mouth to my earlobe and knocked me to the ground. My hand shot up to my cheek as I turned to look at my attacker.

"You can take that damn snake and stick it up your ass." Hidoi-san spat. "I ain't afraid of shit."

My cheek burned hotly. Before she slammed the door in my face, I could see the object of my offense clearly in her hand, pointed side of an old, dull kunai knife. I got to my feet slowly, hoping that the gash on my cheek was minor and not the gigantic sore it felt like it was.

I didn't know where to turn to. It was a day off. One of the only days I wasn't scheduled to train with the team. If I remembered correctly, Tsunade was supposed to be going out of the village with her family on some kind of peacemaking arrangement with the Kage of another land and Jiraiya and his family was going with them. With the manor closed off to me, the only place I could think to go was the training field. Even if I was just going to be alone.

It was a brisk, windy morning when I found my way to the training field that we normally practiced in and was surprised to see Hiruzen Sensei lying against a tree trunk looking up at the billowing white clouds overhead. An echo of relief went through me.

_For some reason, I'm happy I won't be alone after all..._

I walked over to him slowly and cautiously but with ninja-like perceptive skills, he sensed me in closer than halfway across the field from him. He sat up and gave me one of his usual smiles as I approached him.

_His arm..._

It was bandaged and being supported by a sling around his neck. He saw me staring and shook his head.

"This? Don't worry about it." He said. "The missions over a last couple of days have been brutal."

"Where?"

"Just some disputes among the stone and mist villages." He said, shifting himself. "Hashirama-san believed that giving tailed beasts to all the other lands would make them more frightened of warfare but..."

I knelt next to him, sitting in the shade and out of the glimmering sun. My snake lowered itself into the grass.

"But it might have increased hostilities?" I asked.

He nodded, then shook his head.

"But don't worry about all of that." He added quickly. "It's adult stuff."

I picked at the grass.

"We're going to pick sides at one point." I told him. "And then the other side will pick their allies. And then...we're all going back to war."

"Don't say that." He said.

"It's true." I insisted. "That's why you don't want me to worry about it. Because you know what's going to happen soon."

"Don't you have faith in the protection of the village?" he asked.

_Do I?_

I sighed.

"Yes."

"Then trust Hokage Tobirama and everyone here." He told me. "We'll try our hardest not to let that happen."

We were silent for a while as I dug my fingers into the dirt. I glanced to the left, noticing Hiro slither his way into the trees.

"Oro-kun." He said.

I looked up at him. His expression was that of immense concern.

"What happened to your face?"

I had completely forgotten about my injury. My cheek pulsated as I remembered the place Hidoi-san had taken the kunai knife across my face. Hiruzen Sensei lifted his uninjured arm and touched my cheek and I quickly winced, leaning away from him.

"I don't know." I told him.

He stared at me and I stared back. Seconds passed...perhaps moments.

"...Are you lying to me?"

"No." I said.

I could tell from the expression on his face that he didn't believe me but he said nothing. He silently reached into the pack on his back and removed a roll of bandages and some liquefied disinfectant. He poured some of the liquid on the bandaged patch and motioned to me. Knowing what he wanted, I edged near him and winched as he pressed it against my injury.

"Injuries happen." He said.

I nodded slightly, remembering Tsunade having said the same thing back then.

"...But there's a sharp difference between an intentional injury and an accidental one."

I fidgeted as he pressed the gauze to my cheek and taped it there.

"If someone is hurting you, you can tell me." he said softly. "You know that, don't you?"

A cool breeze past moving my hair into my face. I closed my eyes.

"Yes." I responded.

_Even if I did tell you about this, you'd want to know everything... And I can't tell you everything... Not ever..._

"Okay. You're fixed."

"Thank you." I said quietly.

He grinned down at me, scratching his goatee.

"You want to do some sparring practice?" he asked.

"But you're hurt." I pointed out.

"I'm a ninja." He reminded me. "I can hack it."

He bounded to his feet quickly moving to the center of the field.

"Perhaps this will make us more even." He said.

_Weren't you the one who said that time that a team is better than fighting alone?_

But I ran for him anyway, beginning with just Taijutsu, I slid toward him, making large, round strokes with my kicks, trying to knock him down but he dodged them with ease, smiling as he did.

"That style of yours." He said, snickering. "Always so flashy, huh?"

I began with a kick and then froze mid-way, leaning forward to jab him with my elbow. Having hopped backward with his legs, his head was almost in my hair. I prepared myself for the blow of connecting my elbow with his nose but it didn't happen. Quicker than ever, he had bent backward, doing a one-armed back flip to get out of the way.

I slammed my hands to the ground. It had been a long time since we'd fought using only Taijustu. When Jiraiya, Tsunade and I had turned eight, Hiruzen tested our chakra natures and discovered that all three of us were Earth styles.

"So we're going to learn a whole bunch of earth jutsu now!?" Jiraiya asked.

"Nope." Hiruzen said.

Jiraiya basically collapsed right there. Tsunade gave him a funny look.

"Then...we're _never _going to learn Ninjutsu?!" she exclaimed.

"Of course you are." He said. "Just not in the way you're thinking."

We all blinked at him.

"Most ninja train in regular Ninjutsu arts, beginning with whatever nature they have an affinity for, and then, as they get better, gaining other natures along the way." He explained to us.

_I've read that about a thousand times already. _

"But I want to train you three differently." He said. "I'm thinking that you'll be stronger as a team, and on your own, if instead of being proficient in Taijutsu and Ninjutsu like most ninja, you're proficient in Taijutsu and _Senjutsu_."

_Senjutsu?_

I recalled hearing about it sparingly but not enough to know it verbatim. Instead, Tsunade picked up the bait.

"You mean the sage arts?" she asked. "Like summoning jutsu?"

"Exactly." He said. "Firstly, it'll be unexpected for children of your age to be able to do such a thing, and secondly, it'll reinforce your teamwork."

Suddenly, it all made sense to me.

_This is why he spent so much time on Taijustu... Because this way, knowing only Senjutsu as the other alternative, we're not just encouraged to depend on each other... We're _forced_ to._

"Here, I'll demonstrate it first." Hiruzen Sensei said.

He bit his thumb, slammed his hand down, and summoned a great monkey.

"See?" he said. "I've been able to summon this guy since I was around your age."

"Wow? Really?" Jiraiya asked, pumping his fists up and down. "So we all get our own special summons!?"

Jiraiya bit his thumb.

"I'm gonna get one right now!"

"Hey, Jiraiya, hold on a sec-"

He slammed his hand down and immediately disappeared. We all blinked at the spot he was previously standing. A couple of silent moments passed.

"He's killed himself, hasn't he?" I said.

"Better he dies now before we got too attached." Tsunade said, shrugging.

Hiruzen laughed.

"He's just reversed summoned himself." He said. "Probably to one of the great animal kingdoms. Hopefully, the species he finds there is kind or else...we might _really_ have a funeral for him!"

"How are we supposed to know what species to study?" Tsunade questioned.

"Normally, you train under your master's animal." Hiruzen told her.

But seeing Tsunade wrinkle her nose at the monkey scratching its back next to her, he switched his sentence up.

"Or...you could reverse summon yourself like Jiraiya did and see where you end up."

Tsunade sighed and shook her head, mumbling something about asking her mother.

"And what should we do for Ninjutsu?" Tsunade followed up. "Nothing?"

Hiruzen smiled at us.

"I'm leaving that all up to you." He said to us both. "You're eight year olds now, right? That's almost chunin exam taking age. Do whatever you feel is best."

Tsunade nodded, punching her palm.

"Then I know exactly what to do!" she said. "I'll take Mito-san up on that offer to study medical Ninjutsu!"

Hiruzen nodded.

"I had a feeling you'd go that direction." He said. "And you, Orochimaru?"

"Well... What's wrong with learning...every dojutsu there is to learn?" I asked him.

He cocked his head.

"Well... Just that you probably won't live long enough to finish!" he said, laughing.

I didn't catch the joke.

"I'm going to begin with Earth, my natural chakra nature." I said.

He nodded, approving my choice.

"Sound decision."

I slammed my hands down into the dirt, raising a barrage of walls against him. Hiruzen Sensei's footing was dislodged by the hills rising under him.

"Whoaaa." He yelled.

He jumped off, landing next to me, and then let off a low whistle.

"Nice one." He said, looking up at the large hills before us. "Looks a lot like my Ground Raiser Jutsu."

"I based it off of you." I said. "But mine are higher and thicker."

"What?" he asked. "No way, mine are so much higher!"

"That's a lie."

"Not it isn't, if I had two hands, I'd prove it to you right now."

We stared at each other and then he laughed.

"Alright, you got me!" he said. "This is a helluva lot better!"

I couldn't help but smile. He turned.

_Wait._

He walked, heading toward the tree he was sitting at previously.

_Where is he going?_

"Man, you really are something... I can't wait to tell Tobirama-sama about this one."

_This isn't over._

"Sensei."

He stopped, then turned, looking at me.

"I haven't won yet." I told him steadily.

Wind blew across the field, bringing a couple flowers past us. He stared at me. I stared back.

"Come here." He ordered.

I reluctantly broke out of my fighting position and came over to him. He looked down at me, neither upset nor sad, his expression was curious.

"You like fighting?" he asked me.

I said nothing. I wasn't sure how I was expected to respond.

_What does he want me to say?_

"Or perhaps... You like _winning_." He stated.

I looked up at him in a matter-of-factly way.

"What's the point of trying if you aren't going to win?" I asked him.

He nodded.

"That's true... There isn't really a point, except, well then... What about life in general?" he asked.

_Huh?_

"Life is like a game you don't particularly win." He said. "You just do a little bit better each time."

He smiled as he said this, as though enjoying some personal joke but I didn't find it funny. He found his spot back next to the tree bark and rested, enjoying the sun on his skin. I stood there, looking down at him expressionlessly.

"Hiruzen Sensei, why do we live?"

Birds cawed overhead. He adjusted himself and pulled a cigarette out of his shirt pocket which he promptly lit. For a long time, he didn't say anything. The smoke drifted above us, swirling overhead silently. Slowly, he raised his eyebrows at me.

"That's a very heavy question." He said.

I said nothing, still waiting for a proper response. He snubbed the cigarette out in the grass next to him and pointed at me.

"You haven't discovered a reason yet?"

_Have I? _

"Well, I suppose you'll just have to settle with what I believe then."

He straightened himself up, preparing for a story.

"I believe that... Life is about finding your inner peace." He said. "It's about finding a couple people you really, really care about and calling them your friends, your family, your comrades."

I found a spot in the grass to sit down again.

"And it's about finding an even more special person that you'd like to spend the rest of your life with." He said. "And it's also about the little things... Times like this, just sitting down experiencing nature. We live for peace, Oro. It's that simple."

"That just sounds like wasting time." I remarked. "What about war? We have to make decisions and fix problems like the Hokage's do so that war doesn't happen anymore."

He nodded.

"True. It's also important to fix problems in life but even you said yourself that you believe we're all just going back to war."

I looked down at the dirt dismally.

"Sometimes, colossal issues like that cannot be fixed in one lifetime."

My eyes opened wide.

"But then how will they be fixed?"

"Well, that's the most important thing of all." He said, placing his hand on my head like he normally did. "It's called Legacy."

"Legacy?" I repeated.

"What you leave behind on this Earth can be even more impactful than you are." He said.

"Like...scrolls and manuscripts?" I asked.

He grinned wider.

"Even better." He said. "Your legacy is your love, Oro-kun."

_My...love?_

"Whenever you get a chance to find a woman that you love more than anything and have a child, he or she will be your legacy. He or she will carry on your will stronger than your own life force." He said. "Your children, your children's children and even their children will forever be indebted to you, carrying on your legacy after you've long been dead and gone."

He put his uninjured arm behind his head and eased his eyes closed.

"Life is all about realizing that there are some things that you can do and some things that you can't." he said. "And what you can't do, your love will do _for _you."

_Legacy... _

Hiruzen sat there with his eyes closed, enjoying the sunny warmth some more.

_I want to understand this. I want to... But..._

"Ahh... Well, I think it's about time for lunch, don't you think?"

I shrugged.

_Just what _is_ love anyway? I'm...not sure._

He stood up.

"They built a new walk-in eatery not too far from here called Ichiraku Ramen." He said. "Want a bite?"

I nodded.

"Alright, then let's have at it."

I looked around, trying to spot grass lines where Hiro had slithered through. I walked into the mass of trees behind us and ducked my head under a branch.

_There you are..._

He was swaying back and forth over a lump of green grass... Or so I thought. The closer I got, the more I realized the lump was moving.

_It's a frog._

I knelt down, poking the frog gingerly. Though it's eyes widened, following my finger, it did not move.

_Snake venom can have multiple different effects other than poison. Paralyzing one's prey is one of them. Snake fact number 9._

I stroked Hiro's back, bringing him out of his offensive position and up my arm, onto my back. But I didn't move, I continued staring at the still animal.

_Perhaps, life isn't peace at all... Perhaps, it's war... War among all the species._

I reached out and gripped the webbed leg of it, stretching it outward, watching the widening of the animal's eyes as I did so.

_If animals like this can experience pain... Do they also understand love?_

"Oro-kun! Where are you?"

I snapped out of my trance and stood up, running out to meet him.

"Oh, you were looking for Hiro?"

I nodded, falling into step next to him.

_One day, I'll understand. Love. Legacy. I'll understand it... I won't stop until I do._

"What'll you be having, boy?" the restaurant owner asked me as we seated ourselves at the eatery.

I had just begun getting used to eating food native to Konoha, but still, the only food I'd readily ask for was probably...

"Anything with eggs in it." Hiruzen responded for me. "Make sure it's hot."

I raised my eyebrows, looking at him with genuine surprise.

He grinned.

"What? You think I don't know my own student's favorite food?" he asked.

"Alright!" the man said, setting my bowl down. "One steaming bowl of eggplant and beef ramen it is!"

Suddenly, Hiro slithered across the table top, making a beeline for my bowl. I lifted it out of his reach just in time.

"Hey!" the owner said, suddenly angry. "Get that animal out of here!"

I bowed my head.

"Sorry." I mumbled, picking Hiro up and letting him onto the floor. "Go wait outside."

He slowly made his way past the anxious and uncomfortable customers sitting around us and into the walk-way.

"Geez, I hate kids..." the ramen man muttered. "Thinking of making this place adult only."

His son, who looked to be only around eleven or twelve rolled his eyes.

"Don't worry, kid." He said, grinning at me. "I'm gonna inherit this business from the old guy one day and I'd never let him keep kids out."

"Good thing, too." Hiruzen Sensei said. "It's people like him that make me feel ashamed to be an old guy."

The kid laughed loudly and Hiruzen joined in with him. I looked down at my ramen bowl and my smile mirrored back at me from the soup.

_Maybe...finding a legacy won't be so hard after all..._

After we finished eating, Hiruzen paid the guy and tipped the kid and we walked off.

"That man and his son is like a legacy." I told Hiruzen Sensei.

"Yeah, if you can call running a Ramen Shop a legacy." Hiruzen joked.

Hiro nipped at my heels, reminding me he was there and I dipped down, raising him to rest on around my shoulders.

"Who's your legacy then?" I asked him.

"Well, I plan to be Hokage one day." He said. "And so... My legacy most likely be...everyone in the village I leave behind me. Everyone that carries on the Will Of Fire that Hashirama Sensei left us."

"Hokage...?"

I raised my eyes to the mountain in front of us that we were steadily walking toward with Hashirama's and Tobirama's faces carved into it.

"And you know... You could carry on the legacy after I do." He proposed.

I was so entranced by what he was saying, I barely realized that we were nearing my front porch steps.

"What do you mean?" I questioned.

"I mean, become the Fourth Hokage, of course!" He said smiling.

_Fourth Hokage...?_

He reached forward and knocked on the door.

And I realized... I'd never even considered the idea... But how perfect. In that way, I could change things I didn't like just the same way Tobirama did. Or create new systems or...do whatever I wanted. In the position of Hokage, I didn't see fame or acknowledgement, or even legacy... I saw..._freedom._

"Hello."

And then it was all gone. Replaced by what was always holding back my hope and trust...a jail-cell named fear.

Kenichi-san stood at the door looking at Hiruzen Sensei curiously.

"Good evening, my name is Sarutobi Hiruzen. I'm Orochimaru's instructor."

Kenichi-san flashed him one of his award winning smiles.

"I know you!" he said. "You're next in line to be Hokage, aren't you? Basically, Hokage Tobirama's right hand man."

I edged back, gripping Hiruzen's pant leg.

"I've heard_ all _about you, man. You're like a legend for us Genin working in the Tactical Espionage Unit, you know? I _aspire _to be like you!"

Hiruzen laughed, glancing down at me and giving me a curious look. Most likely wondering why I was all but hiding behind him.

"Ah really? Well, I'm sorry to be so late bringing him home, it's just I was wondering about this bruise on his face..."

Hiruzen Sensei took my chin softly, turning my face to show him the swelling.

Kenichi-san laughed.

"Yeah, well... I don't know what he gets up to." He said, shrugging. "See, I live with my older sister and she has three boys so, you know how that is. Lots of rough housing goes on."

"I understand that's how it may have been _before_, but you see, I can't help but feel concerned about random cuts and bruises showing up on my student's face." Hiruzen Sensei said, suddenly turning very serious. "Especially when he doesn't feel comfortable talking about them with me."

A chilly breeze floated by. I couldn't help but feel like I wanted to jump down the staircase and run as far as I possibly could from them.

_He doesn't understand... It's not going to help anything. Not with him..._

"I just feel that everyone in this situation would feel much, much more comfortable if you could make sure that this never happens again."

_He's...different. _

Kenichi-san nodded hard.

"Oh, yes, sir. Definitely. I'll get right on that."

"Not even a scratch, alright?" Hiruzen reminded him. "Or I'll be sending a platoon full of Uchiha's over here to arrest every single one of you."

"I understand, sir." Kenichi-san said.

"Go." Hiruzen said to me.

I was leaning against him with his pant leg still clutched in my grip like it was life support. The house was silent. Normally, if Kenichi-san held the door open for that long, the triplets would come poking around or Hidoi-san would complain of feeling a draft. Some noise... Something... But it was silent. He was alone.

_It's always worse when he's alone. _

"They're not going to do anything... Go ahead." Hiruzen reassured me.

And for some foolish reason, I trusted that reassurance and underestimated my enemy. I crossed the threshold and entered the house. I watched Hiruzen bound back down the staircase and turn the corner. He didn't look back once. He was completely confident.

"It must've really hurt, huh? For you to go rat Onee-chan out to your Sensei..." He said.

He slammed the door closed and then knelt down to my level. I craned my neck out of the way but he was still fast enough to stroke my cheek, fingers grazing the bruise.

"Geez... I thought you liked me." he pouted. "That guy made me feel like some kind of criminal."

_You _are_ a criminal._

"But, man..." He said, getting to his feet. "I cringe to think what Onee-chan's gonna do to you when she finds out."

That caught my attention.

"What do you mean? Sensei said-"

He put his hand on my head and walked, leading me away from the front door.

"I _heard_ what he said." he told me, smirk crossing his face. "He said he didn't want to _see_ a scratch on you. I'll relay the info to Onee-chan just like that."

And then it clicked. However, I couldn't say that I was surprised at all. There was no one better at hearing what they wanted to hear than he was.

_But if they keep that up, I'll be covered in clothing from head to toe._

I pushed his hand off my head as he opened Hidoi-san's bedroom door. It wasn't until he grasped the sleeve of my robe, pulling me forward that I noticed he'd closed the door before Hiro could get inside. He lifted me up, which wasn't difficult at all seeing as how I barely ate at that house, and sat me down on the edge of the bed.

"Alright... Alright..." he said in a soft voice as he knelt down in front of me.

His light green eyes gazed into mine.

"I'll tell you what. We can make it an exchange."

My stomach dropped.

_I knew it... I knew this would happen... I was right along._

"I'll tell her and her demon brats to lay off you in a way that'll scare 'em straight for good, if you do whatever I say tonight."

_He never keeps his promises anyway..._

"Besides..." he said, flipping his blonde hair out of his eyes. "Do you really think I like it when your face is all messed up?"

I stared him down.

"I refuse." I told him.

"You're feisty today, aren't ya?" he asked. "Well, it's no problem. You already owe me one for the bathroom incident early today."

_No..._

I could've screamed for him to let me go or shouted for help but...

_It's not like there is a law against what he does to me._

He tugged on the tie of my robe.

"You should be grateful..." he said, running one of his hands through my hair.

_With Hidoi-san, you can avoid it, or with the triplets, you can run... But with him? There's nothing to do except wait..._

"I don't hurt you like they do." he reminded me, as my robe dropped to the floor. "I show you what love feels like."

_Just what _is_ love anyway? _

He pushed me back to lie down on the sheets.

_And why is it that every time I search for it, I only feel hate? _


	4. Chapter 4

**Orochimaru**

**Turning Twelve**

The years that passed, from ages eight to twelve, were like the blink of an eye.

Things changed. Even though I had made a pledge of searching for my legacy, I couldn't keep to it. I wanted to begin with the people who were closest to me... Tsunade and Jiraiya. But with the way I had to act toward them, as the leader of our group when Hiruzen wasn't present, they saw me less as a subordinate, someone they could relate to, and more like a superior.

"Dammit, Orochimaru." Jiraiya said furiously one day.

It was raining. We were on our first out-of-village mission to the Hidden Cloud Village to help guard an important official. While everyone was asleep, Hiruzen Sensei decided it would be a good time for us to work on our skills and left me in charge.

"You're doing it wrong. You need to practice more." I stated.

"I'm trying!" he shouted at me. "But my frog summoning will NEVER work with your snake summoning, alright?! I'm done trying it!"

Tsunade whipped her dripping brownish blonde hair off her forehead and crossed her arms.

"Stop yelling. Yelling isn't going to fix anything." She said.

"And why does Hiruzen Sensei always have to leave _you_ in charge anyway?" he asked, shaking the rain out of his hair as we took cover under an overhang. "You're the youngest of the three of us."

_Only by a couple months._

"Don't you see, Tsuna?" He asked her. "He's playing favorites."

She stared at me for a while and then sighed.

"I'll go talk to Hiruzen Sensei and tell him that we think it's best we work on our own separate things for a while." She said, making her way up into the loft.

_It's obvious._ _She also thinks Hiruzen's spoiling me._

Jiraiya shook his head again, spraying water droplets everywhere and then pulled one of his ninja scrolls out. In it was a couple of jutsu that he was steadily struggling to master.

"T-The... Sup... No... Sub..."

"Substitution." I read for him.

He stiffened.

"Thanks, Oro, but I told you, I want to figure it out by myself."

He never gave up on reading. He cared about learning to read more than any of the other things we'd learned, almost to the point that he was completely neglecting his Ninjutsu practice. By the time we got to age nine, he was far behind in technique but rather skilled mentally. Unlike me, who couldn't figure out Hiruzen Sensei's lesson about legacy, Jiraiya took it on wholeheartedly when Hiruzen told him and Tsunade later that week.

"I get it, Sensei." He said, then he grinned. "I can't wait until I'm your age so I can leave my will just like you."

Tsunade just shrugged.

"That's what baby brother's are for. Nawaki will inherit my legacy." She explained.

However, also when we were nine year olds, things drastically changed in the village. The First Great Ninja war happened, just like I had predicted it would three years earlier.

"I overheard a conversation Uncle Tobirama was having with my Dad last night." Tsunade said as we took a break from Ninjutsu training. "Is it true Sensei? Are we really going to war?"

Hiruzen Sensei sighed.

"This isn't really a good conversation, kids." He said. "Maybe-"

"We're not children, Sensei." Jiraiya told him. "We're ninja. Just like you are."

He sighed again.

"The Stone Village is currently trying to overtake some of the Mist Village's territory." He told us. "The Cloud made an alliance with the Stone village about a week ago, promising to lend them military forces if they can get a share of the Mist's land. And the Sand, being closely allied with the Mist at this time, promised to protect the Mist in case of any issue."

_So everyone's allied except..._

"What about us?" Tsunade asked.

"Well, Hokage Tobirama had decided to side with the Sand and the Mist to keep the Stone Village in check, thinking that they would back down if they saw they were against three countries instead of just one or two but..."

_They're inconsolable..._

"The Stone is still pushing forward with Cloud ninja on their front. At this point, we can't go back on our word. We have to defend the Mist's territory." He said.

"But I thought we didn't even like the Mist." Jiraiya spoke up.

"True but often times, especially in cases of countries, you have to work with people no matter what you think about them."

"We should've kept our mouths closed. Let them war and weaken themselves so that we'll be the strongest." I spoke up.

Hiruzen Sensei raised his eyebrows.

"You think so?"

I quickly looked down. Normally, I didn't say things like that out loud. He laughed patting my head.

"You know, Danzo said the exact same thing." He said. "But Tobirama insisted that presenting the village in a positive, helpful image would be better for us in the long run than remaining isolated and neutral."

Jiraiya laughed.

"Well, isolated and neutral is Orochimaru's middle name!"

Tsunade and Hiruzen joined in his laughter but I couldn't find the humor.

_What's there to laugh about if we're going to war soon?_

But there_ really_ wasn't much to laugh about later. Hiruzen Sensei was the leader one of the first platoons to be sent out.

"Today." He told us, in a somber, monotone voice. "You are Genin."

Our eyes widened as we looked up at him expectantly.

"I'm leaving today and I'm not sure when I'll be back but when or if I come back does not matter. Your post is here." He said, pointing down. "Protect the village, along with the other Genin, with your lives in case there is any type of home attack. Make people remember what team you're from!"

"Right!" Tsunade yelled.

"Team Hiruzen!" Jiraiya shouted.

For five months, things were quiet. The Jounin, Chunin, and all Special Forces were sent off. Even Hokage Tobirama had gone. In Hokage Tobirama's place, Mito Uzumaki, Hashirama's wife, was making domestic decisions like food rations and the drills we should take in case of invasion. She put together a team of older Genin who carved out caves and secret tunnels inside the Hokage Mountain where all unarmed villagers could escape to in an emergency. Tsunade, Jiraiya and I weren't assigned to that project or any other project for that matter. We were more or less on standby. So I spent most of the time in the Hokage Manor with them just wasting time.

"Instead of sitting around like broken shuriken holsters, why don't you three fill out the paper work to be considered to be Chunin?" Tsuzumi-san, Tsunade's Mother, asked us.

Tsunade was sitting in a white painted chair at her desk while I sat on the floor between her legs with a couple of the old ritual books from Hashirama's library spread out in front of me. Jiraiya was sitting on Tsunade's bed with Nawaki, who was almost six by then, playing "hand seals", a game mother's often played with their children to show them how to do all the hand seals necessary to enact a Ninjutsu quickly and efficiently so that, when they were older, it would be second nature. Tsuzumi-san normally did it herself but she was clearly far too busy scolding us.

Jiraiya sighed and leaned back so that he dramatically toppled off of Tsunade's bed.

"That thing is like 1,000 pages long." He complained.

"Whatever. Look, I brought the application for you." She said.

I turned my head, leaning up to see over Tsunade's knee.

"Oro-kun, stop moving, I'm trying to get this twist right."

I moved my head back center as Tsunade straightened herself in her desk chair and continued braiding my hair. Seeing I was interested in the book, Tsuzumi-san dropped it next to me.

It smacked to the ground with an explosive THUD.

"Look at that! It almost broke right through the floor!" Nawaki exclaimed.

Tsuzumi-san crossed her arms and leaned up against Tsunade's lavender painted walls.

"It's not that long. 1,000 pages? That's such an exaggeration." She said.

I turned the book to the last page.

"Actually, it's not an exaggeration. It really is 1,234 pages." I told her. "See?"

Nawaki snickered as she rolled her eyes, sighing at my plainness.

Jiraiya spread his arms out.

"I rest my case!"

"I agree with Jiraiya, Mom." Tsunade said. "That's why this village has virtually no Chunin. It's way too much work to do all that crap."

"Well, it isn't like you're going to have a choice soon." She said, standing in front of Tsunade's golden-rimmed mirror to tie a white Konoha Leaf Headband around her short-cut blonde hair. "We're losing a lot of people in that war."

The mood was instantly stifled. I thought of Hiruzen Sensei and Uchiha Kagami and Koharu Sensei. And everyone else who was a part of Tobirama Sensei's Special six-man team that, most likely, were leading their own platoons out there.

Tsunade's fingers paused on my head. Sitting between her legs on the floor, I only had to look up to see her face...which was devoid of emotion.

Being one of the smartest tactical ninja, and also the head of the Intelligence Unit in the village, Itama Senju was vital to the war. He was one of the first people sent out. Tsunade hadn't seen him in a long time.

Tsuzumi-san shrugged her white lab coat on and walked over to us, putting a soft hand on both Nawaki and Tsunade's heads.

"He's fine." Was all she said before she turned around swiftly.

We heard her footsteps padding across the mats in the hall.

_Does she really believe that herself?_

Suddenly, there was a shrill scream. We all jumped up.

"What?!" Nawaki exclaimed.

Suddenly, Hiro slithered into the room through the crack in the door. We could hear Tsuzumi-san breathing heavily.

"Oh! Sorry, sorry... What the hell are you feeding that thing, Orochimaru?" she cried. "I thought the dammed thing was an alligator!"

Everyone watched as the thick snake came over to me and wound itself around my waist. I avoided everyone eyes, opting to say nothing.

We heard the front door open and close swiftly, signaling her leave, and then it was silent.

"She says that but then she's the first person working overtime and avoiding coming home on the weekends." Tsunade said, getting up from her chair.

I moved my head out of the way as she walked to her closet.

"It's during a war, Tsuna. It makes sense that she'd work more." Jiraiya mumbled.

Tsunade rolled her eyes.

"She doesn't have to." Tsunade mumbled. "She just doesn't want to come home... Because it's so... Empty here."

Jiraiya crossed his arms. Nawaki sighed and leaned back onto the bed, opting to stare up at the ceiling than listening to us.

"That doesn't sound true." I spoke up.

Tsunade turned from the closet.

"Your Mother is the head of the Medical Unit since Mito-san is taking Hokage Tobirama's place. Out of everyone else, she's needed on the battlefield, near the HQ center, the most." I pointed out. "However..."

"But she decided to stay here with us." Jiraiya finished. "Oro's right."

She stared at me for a moment. I wasn't sure what she was looking for, but when she found it, she smiled.

"Well, in any case, if we don't succeed in something by the time Hiruzen Sensei comes back, we'll really look like losers." She said, nudging the giant book with her foot.

"But that's boring! I'm not wasting my time filling out a whole one-million page book for no reason."

"Now, you're exaggerating. It isn't a million pages." I reminded him.

"Whatever!" He yelled.

"I think Jiraiya's right." Tsunade said. "I mean, what's the point of it anyway?"

"To test endurance." I guessed.

"Yeah, but it's not testing what's really important." She explained. "I of all people know that book-smarts and cleverness can only get you so far."

She cocked her head.

"What's really important is skill and...bravery."

We locked eyes again.

"Then...perhaps some kind of examination?" I proposed. "One that tests book-smarts _and _skill?"

Jiraiya nodded hard, enjoying the idea.

"Let's run it by Tobirama-san and Hiruzen Sensei when they get back!" He exclaimed.

Alternatively, that year was turning out to be the best year of my young life. By that time, the Caregiver Act had been completely dispelled and the single apartment homes were built. I was completely free of Hidoi-san, the triplets and Kenichi-san since I was all the way on the opposite side of the village from them, I virtually never had to see them. The freedom I had been thirsting for the majority of my life was quelled.

However, my scientific curiosity mixed in with a longing for the understanding of love that Hiruzen Sensei presented me with prompted me to turn the small, one bedroom apartment I was given into something like an animal museum. Hiro was the only snake I had collected, but with the help of his paralyzing venom, I was able to capture tons of other forest animals which I held in cages, tanks and containers around the place. There, I experimented with the concept of love.

First, I began with rats.

"I thought so..." I mumbled.

At first, there had been only two rats in the cage, a black one and a white one, but suddenly there were six extra very small rats of a grayish pink color.

"These two rats just made a whole set." I reported. "That must mean they love each other, like Hiruzen Sensei was talking about."

But days passed and strangely, there seemed to be less rats in the cage each time I looked until there were only two small baby rats. It didn't take long for me to come to the conclusion.

"Rats are incapable of love, Hiro." I said tonelessly, staring at the cannibal creatures. "Eat them."

Hiro, which was by then almost three feet long, slithered from around my shoulders and into the cage where the rats immediately began to screech and squeal.

"Eat the babies, too. All of them. They're useless." I ordered.

Next, I tried frogs. Which weren't cannibals at least, but didn't seem to have any kind of extraordinary attachment. They barely even cared for their children. I crossed them off, too. Turtles were next, but again, they seemed completely oblivious.

"We're going to have to go for larger animals, Hiro. These ones have no intellectual capability whatsoever."

I loped near the trees surrounding the training grounds where I spent most of my time catching animals. But larger animals were a lot more difficult to find. The biggest I could get at the time were squirrels. While paralyzed, I sharpened a couple of pieces of bark off of the nearby trees into wooden stakes and plucked them through the squirrels wrists and ankles. The squirrels eyes widened but it didn't cry out or squirm, it couldn't.

_The more I do this, the more things become apparent to me..._

I stuck the stakes in, one after another.

_Life is not about peace. It is about war._

Hiro circled the animal thirstily, most likely waiting for my signal that he could go ahead and eat it.

_Not physical war... But the war within ourselves. The war within to understand who we are and our place in the world. The purpose of life. That war._

"In textbooks, love is defined as a deep, tender feeling of affection toward another person." I spoke aloud. "Do you feel affection toward anything?"

The squirrel stared at me. I lifted an acorn.

"...Do you love food?"

The squirrels head turned toward the acorn.

"Looks like the feeling in your upper body is coming back." I noted. "Good thing I staked you."

The squirrel's eyes remained on the acorn. I raised my eyebrows, sensing a breakthrough.

"You really love this acorn?" I asked it.

I set the acorn in the grass next to it, just out of reach and watched as, over time, the feeling in the squirrel's body came back. It writhed and jolted in pain, agonizing over the stakes in its wrists and feet which were bleeding generously at that point, but still, it watched the food.

I put my finger on the acorn, nudging it ever so slightly toward the squirrel. It's body rose in anticipation, teeth chattering. Then, with my forefinger and thumb, I squashed it. Grinding the nut into pieces. The squirrel jolted then, swaying violently back and forth, causing more blood to spill from its body.

I smiled, the first smile I had in a long time.

"Love causes anger." I realized.

I reached toward the animal with a finger, moving it toward it's mouth. It snapped at me angrily.

"And anger leads to animosity." I cocked my head. "Do you hate me squirrel?"

The squirrel said nothing, it's shinning black eyes pierced into mine. I sighed, closing my eyes.

_I'm looking for love and I'm only finding hatred... How ironic._

"You can have it, Hiro. It's served it's purpose."

When I wasn't catching animals in that field, I was there practicing with Jiraiya and Tsunade, again, trying to see if we could train together with our summoning. The main problem was that Jiraiya was terrible with his frogs, he could barely summon a tadpole without a lot of extra work, when he reverse summoned himself to whatever place he had gone to, he learned a lot, but still, it seemed he couldn't control it well in battle yet. Tsunade was having a similar problem, trying to figure out how the tiny slugs she could manipulate could go from healing small shuriken cuts to actually offensively attacking. And after I discovered Hiro could paralyze animals, I tested his venom for other things but discovered it was completely non-lethal. As Jiraiya plainly put it multiple times, our summoning "sucked ass".

But still, we kept on training in hopes that when Hokage Tobirama and Hiruzen Sensei returned, we'd have something interesting to show them.

Unfortunately...one of them didn't make it back.

That day, I was trying to entice Hiro to lead other snakes when I spotted a rising puff of smoke signaling the homecoming of surviving ninja and the end of the conflict.

_The war is over._

Though the war was over, there wasn't much to celebrate. Hiruzen Sensei, Danzo, Kagami, Koharu and the rest of them were on Hokage Tobirama's special ANBU elite squad. There was a serious conflict where someone would have to act as the decoy to let the others escape... In the end, Hokage Tobirama ended up as the decoy rendering our village leaderless. A month later, we gathered together.

_Again... I'm at one of these funerals._

Tsunade was on stage again, but this time, her father Itama, who was last seen helping some young Chunin ninja escape one the HQ stations that was ambushed in the center of the battlefield, was absent. She and Nawaki stood next to their mother, Tsuzumi-san, and held her hands. They were both crying. Hiruzen stood center stage.

"Hokage Tobirama's last words were an order...instructing me to take up the position of Hokage." Hiruzen Sensei informed us.

It was news to me. Jiraiya nudged me, eyes as wide as mine were and we looked back.

"I've obliged." He said. "So...if you'd like to, I want to make this village the best village there is by carrying on the founding brothers' legacy! Will you all stand by me!?"

Like last time, everyone fist pumped.

"Then let's go forth!" he exclaimed.

The funeral arena burst with cheers.

Because of Hiruzen's Hokage obligations, we were released from our position as his "students" primarily early.

"So, we're chunin now?" Jiraiya asked when we were told. "Because you know we can't lose our Jounin captain unless we become Chunin."

"I know." He said. "But along with the armistice treaty that all the five ninja nations signed to stop the war, there was a clause I decided to put in there."

"A clause?" Tsunade asked.

"Yes, about the promotion of Genin to the Chunin level." He said, then he grinned. "It was inspired by the letters you all sent me while I was away. When Tobirama-sama was still alive, we talked about changing the system up a bit and I think you'll all be pretty excited to find out what's in store."

A couple of months later, on Tsunade's tenth birthday, we were informed of the Chunin Exams and, all of us, without even a second of doubt, immediately signed up for it. All of the Genin from the other nations were to participate. It was supposed to be a way for the nations to all come together in harmony so that we could be more unified, or at least that's what Hiruzen said, Danzo, who I was initially weary of because he was all for the idea, felt differently about the implications.

_He's probably thinking instead of unification and harmony that, with this system, even if there is a war, we know what kind of kids each village is bringing up and how talented they all are. It gives the hosting village a great advantage._

The main reason I was even able to call something like that was because I agreed. It was always good to have a back-up plan. If there was anything Danzo and Hokage Tobirama were good for, it was that.

The first part of the exam was written. Tsunade passed with flying colors and with the help of Hiro, which I was allowed to bring with me into the testing area because I classified him as an assistance animal, I was able to sufficiently take her answers. By that point, Jiraiya had almost completely mastered reading so he understood the question, but couldn't figure out the answers. I was almost certain he was going to fail but then, suddenly, out of nowhere a flood of frogs sprouted into the testing room, hoping around and disrupting everyone's attention. In the chaos, Jiraiya quickly slipped out of his chair, copied Tsunade's answers from a nearby table, and returned, pretending to pick up a fallen pencil.

_This guy's creativity is unstoppable... _

The next stage was on an island in the Land of the Waves, which is relatively close to Konoha and was surrounded by water. Everyone was given a key, one gold, one silver. There was a gigantic maze of bushes on the island with deadly animals, dead ends, and traps. The only way to get off was to both find the correct pathway to the other side of the island and also steal a gold or silver key from someone. Once your team had both a gold and silver key and got to the other side of the island, there would be a boat to take to get back to land. Though there were test takers there in their twenties, we finished first, using each of our unique skill sets. Jiraiya's stealth skills and laid-back, comical demeanor allowed him to gain people's trust, intercept their ranks, and take the key we needed. Tsunade's sense of direction showed us the way to the boats and Hiro's sensing abilities along with my Taijutsu and Ninjutsu prowess helped us avoid or get rid of any enemies we encountered.

The third stage was slightly harder. They staged it as a Battle Royale. We were all standing in a line off of the stage, staring across the large arena at the other finalists.

"This is going to be crazy." Jiraiya whispered under his breath.

My eyes layered over everyone taking in their stances, trying to discern their strengths and weaknesses.

"And some of them are _so_ big." Tsunade added.

_That's true._

We were barely ten years old. Not to mention our heights and sizes. The only other people near us that were around the same size as us were...unfortunately...

"Hey, Snake-Freak!"

I watched all three of them drag their fingers across their necks and thumbs down.

"You're dead!" they shouted in unison.

_Sen, Koto and Toru... _

I hadn't had conversation with them since the day Hiruzen came to my house and told Kenichi-san to make sure I wasn't hurt anymore. Whatever Kenichi-san told them the next morning cut off all communication between them and me until around six months later when I packed up and moved out. They might've smirked at me from time to time or rolled their eyes at me but as for the snide remarks and petty games, those stopped almost immediately. And Hidoi-san, after that, it was basically like I didn't exist. I was a walking shadow in that house until I left...except, of course, to Kenichi-san.

But even though a good two years had passed since I'd been that close to them, my general feelings toward them hadn't changed. My ears and eyes snapped to attention on the pretense of fear.

"In one minute, it'll be every Shinobi, man, woman or child, for themselves! Get ready to see the fight of your lives!" a voice shouted.

The stadium roared. Everyone around us tensed up.

_This kind of fight... This set up... What's the point of it?_

It was strange for me to be wondering that. The triplets grinned at us from across the battlefield smirking viciously. The men and women of different villages towering over us ignored us, watching each other, underestimating our strength. Teammates looked at each other in distrust and began arguing, lashing out.

_Why is it so different from the others? _

Hiruzen, as the Hokage, presided over us all. A timer loomed behind him, counting down until we would fight. Noticing that I was staring at him, he locked eyes with me. I expected him to smile or grin but his expression was very serious. He held his hand out, holding three fingers up at me.

_...Three?_

And then suddenly, it all made perfect sense to me.

_Of course... We need to be..._

The man standing between us all began counting down from ten. Hiruzen Sensei nodded hard at me. I grabbed Jiraiya's right hand and then grabbed Tsunade's left.

_Nine!_

"Face outwards." I commanded.

_Seven!_

Confused, but trusting me anyway, they did what I said and we faced outwards like a deadlocked unit.

"Let's fight together." I said.

_Four!_

"But only one of us is going to win." Tsunade pointed out.

"It doesn't matter." I told her.

_Two!_

"No, I get what Oro's saying." Jiraiya said, sliding into his fighting position. "We came in as Team Hiruzen..."

"And we're going to leave that way, too." I finished.

"GOOOO!"

For the first couple of seconds, we did nothing. Everyone ran at each other but since we were a non-moving target, we didn't earn much respect. People began falling immediately. One guy with two kunai knives went for this little girl who promptly expelled a huge wind jutsu that cut him to pieces and then was quickly beaten to the ground by an elbow to the back of neck. A scorch style jutsu whipped across the arena after that, taking a couple of people in their wake.

"Shit!" Jiraiya yelled, looking over my shoulder. "We're... We're really _killing_ people right now!?"

"Not necessarily." I heard Tsunade say to him. "Watch closely, they're being taken off stage before..."

Her voice trailed off. I wasn't listening. My eyes were scouting the surrounding fighters. Picking up things they couldn't see, and above all, remaining conscious of Hiruzen Sensei leaning forward in his seat, eyes glued to us.

"Jiraiya watch your side!" Tsunade suddenly shouted.

He turned back around and luckily caught a kunai knife with a paper bomb that had been directed straight for us. He flung it back in the direction it was thrown but it stuck in a tree and didn't harm anyone. Tsunade's back then pressed against mine as she tried to fend off a man with a sword who was trying to burst into our ranks. Then Jiraiya ducked, nearly missing a kick that went over his head and started going hand to hand with Sen. Realizing what I had to do as the only person with free hands, I swung my leg out to the left, tripping the man Tsunade was against giving her the chance to promptly bash him in the head with the dull side of the kunai knife and knock him out. Then in an effort to help Jiraiya, I pulled him backwards and Tsunade tried to get Sen with one of her chakra induced punches. He dodged out of the way but then was hit by a water ball jutsu that someone else had casted that slammed him into a tree ten feet away and rendered him motionless. By that time, the battlefield was almost completely empty. Blood was splattered everywhere. Knocked out people were getting taken out by and large on stretchers.

Koto and Toru were fending off a very large man from the mist village with a missing left eye. They were pushing the man back, using their ninja tools, using very skilled Taijutsu, interchangeably using fire and wind styled jutsus. Seemingly with ease, they disarmed the mist village man, kicked him out of the arena, and turned to me. Their eyes showed malice as they scouted, most likely looking for Sen, and glared at me accusingly.

I braced myself as they darted toward me, weaving in and out of each other's paths.

_I'm not the same kid anymore._

Koto threw a kunai at me. I ducked as Tsunade caught it and threw it in the other direction at her opponent. Toru rushed at me as I was distracted, whipping around me quickly. Before I was aware, my hands were tied with thin wire. Koto jumped over his back, bringing his fists down over my head. My head bashed down.

"Heh!" Koto grinned. "Didn't feel too good, did it?"

I was sliding toward them because of the wire.

_Idiots... The worst thing you can do with a Taijutsu specialist is..._

I jumped down on the wire, making Toru stumble toward me, and because he was behind Koto, push him into me.

_Engage in close quarters combat._

I leaned down, slamming my head into Koto's the same way Hiruzen had done with me a while ago. In my head, I imagined Hiruzen's words.

"_Be strong. Firm."_

I spun, lifting my leg in mid-air and bashing my foot the side of Koto's head. Not having been able to block, his neck whipped back, slamming him into the ground and knocking him clean out. Toru glared at me and snapped his fingers, readying the wire with fire but then, luckily, Jiraiya was able to fend off his opponent and cut my wires for me. I darted at him immediately, grabbing his head and kneeing him in the face. Blood spurt from his nose. His hands and knees slammed down into the dirt in front of me. He sat there coughing, like he was kneeling.

_How ironic. _

He looked up at me, blood pouring down his top lip.

_Is he...going to apologize?_

"You...can k-kiss my asshole." He snarled.

_Of course not. _

He got to his feet and rushed at me but, by that time with all the experience I had it was like he was crawling.

"_You have to crawl before you can run" _

And I was running.

I leaned backward dodging his punch and back flipped, bringing my feet up and catching him in the chin. His neck snapped up, probably already destroying his equilibrium but as I landed on my feet I dashed at him, bashing my elbow into his chest for extra reassurance. I could feel a couple of his ribs crack behind the flesh. He grabbed at me but to no avail. His body was collapsed on the ground in seconds.

_I'm not sure if I believe in revenge..._

I shook my hands out, backing up into formation again.

_But it _does_ feel good._

"Nice hit!" Tsunade declared.

I smiled at her widely, taking her complement to heart.

Suddenly, someone jumped into my line of sight. Without even blinking, I jumped at them, using an earth jutsu I'd recently learned to disturb their footing. As they fell, they pulled out a scroll and pointed at me, immediately overwhelming me with a round of shuriken that would've torn my clothes to pieces if I wasn't so good at dodging and moving. I ran at them, attempting to perform an earth jutsu with my hands that would toss them neatly out of the ring but then they stood, reddish brown hair swinging, performed some quick signs, and, almost in the snap of a finger, a wave of water whooshed out from behind them and over their head.

It was then, as I skidded to a stop, watching the shadow of the 20 foot tall wave crash toward me, and Tsunade and Jiraiya who were just behind me, that I began shaking.

My mind washed back to a reoccurring dream I often had of being on top of a rocky mountain ridge, high above anything else in sight. There was one person holding me in their grasp off the ridge and another person standing further back with crossed arms. Suddenly, the person shoved me off and I fell... My arms swung up into my line of sight and my stomach flew up into my throat and the next thing I knew I slammed down into the waves below and everything after that was a black and blue blur. It was always a nightmare.

I hated that dream... Because more than anything it reminded me that...

_Water scares me._

The triplets discovered that almost immediately and capitalized on it. Pushing me in the lake or shoving me down in the basin tub more often than I'd like to admit. But the only thing worse than falling into water...was water falling on me.

Jiraiya and Tsunade next to me were preparing to split up and try to circumnavigate it but my arms were already moving. I extended my hands and, before I even realized what I was doing, I raised the level of the entire arena. Some parts of the arena broke and skyrocketed, tossing the people standing on them off. I raised my hands high above my head and then, in an effort to stop before the ground we were standing on rose so high it exceeded its own limitations, I slammed my hands down onto the earth. A shock wave started from the place my hands hit the ground and, almost like a colossal earth quake, the ground dropped from where it at risen, the people in the ring were tossed out from shock, going flying into the stands and some, even past the sands and out of the arena altogether. The water jutsu the girl had tried to enact was disrupted and the wave had faltered, the water whooshed, no taller than my ankles and rushed past me.

It wasn't until I heard a shrill scream that the smile, that I hadn't even realized had grown onto my face, dissipated. My eyes zeroed in on a gigantic, almost crater sized crack in the middle of the stage. I walked, turning my head slightly as I came upon the person who had done the water jutsu.

It was then that I realized it was a girl, around three years my junior, a Mist kunoichi. Tears streamed down her face and her reddish brown hair tangled as she rolled around in pain.

_The ground... When I slammed it down, she fell into one of the cracks and..._

The walls slammed in on her, catching her arm and crushing it. Blood littered the grass around her. Tsunade eyes were wide as she came up on one side and Jiraiya grabbed my shoulder on the other. I turned to them.

And it wasn't until then that I realized that I had broken some unspoken rule.

We were the only people in the arena, everyone, even Koto and Toru, had been launched out of the ring by my Earth Raiser Jutsu and were being carried off by emergency medical people or limping off by themselves.

The stadium was silent save for the girl's excessive screaming and crying. She writhed around on the ground, bleeding out. The emergency medical people were setting up, getting ready to run out to her. For lack of anything else to look at, I raised my eyes to the people sitting in the stands. And their eyes shinned right back at me. People covered their hands with their mouths or stood up, gripping the edge of the seat in front of them, or walked back and forth pointing and shouting.

The girl was bleeding everywhere with just a gaping hole where her arm used to be.

_But they didn't look this way when the others were injured._

They stared at me... Almost accusingly.

_It wasn't this way before. Why aren't they happy? Why aren't they cheering?_

I looked down at her realizing the missing factor. Her mouth was open and that wretched sound continued bursting from her lips.

_Perhaps it's because... I didn't show my opponent any mercy. It'd be better to..._

I rose my hand over her slowly, lifting the same part of the ground that had sandwiched her. As I lifted it, she rolled away, managing to get out of the crack and take the tatters of her arm with her.

_But mercy...? She'll never be a ninja again... _

The stone wall that had almost sandwiched her loomed over her.

_That isn't mercy at all._

With a swift movement of my hand, I brought it closer to her body.

"Orochimaru!" someone yelled.

_Just like when Hiro accidently pulls off one of the rats' legs, I should..._

"DON'T!" the yell rang out at the same time I smashed the stone wall over her body.

_End the experiment. _

Her cries ceased immediately and a wave of the blood showered over us all. I blinked the thick, redness out of my eyes, cocking my head as I turned to look at the origin of the voice with a quizzical expression. Tsunade was rigid, shaking slightly as she stared at her blood stained shirt. Jiraiya was frantically grabbing his hair, which was, at that point, dripping pink...

The medical staff that were preparing to run up stopped short.

_But I fixed it. The difference was that she was suffering, wasn't it? She was in pain. She was crying. And I stopped it. I destroyed her pain. Now, she won't ever yell again. _

Everyone in the crowd was completely silent. Their expressions looked completely terrified.

_What...?_

The Medical Ninja had dropped their stretcher. Their expressions were that of anger.

_What is it?_

Jiraiya and Tsunade backed away from me. I rose my eyes higher and even Hiruzen... Even he... His mouth was open and he observed me with horror. The same horror that Jiraiya and Tsunade had.

_WHAT IS IT?! I fixed it, didn't I?! She's just like rest of the dead ones, isn't she? What's the difference? _

I kept looking around, around and around. But I found the same eyes everywhere. The same distant, disapproving eyes.

_Forget it._

I turned my back on them and walked.

_Just forget it._

I stepped foot outside the arena line, disqualifying myself and then continued walking on. The open door in the side of the stadium didn't provide any light. There was only darkness inside. I didn't care. I walked on.

"Final round! Jiraiya and Tsunade... Who will win the crown?!" the announcer exclaimed.

The stadium, still in a depressed stupor, only roared half-heartedly.

"Fight!" He shouted.

I turned the corner, closing my eyes and ears to world.

Rebirth

"Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Someone's fingers snapped in front of my face.

"Hey! Kid... Are you listening?"

I picked my head up, eyes immediately narrowing to block the sun rays and looked at the man... It was Kagami Uchiha. For a reason I doubted I'd even be able to comprehend in death, he was given the task of reporting to me. I nodded.

"Well... Alright, then. This here is the grave he gave them." He said, pointing.

I turned, looking in front of me at a large silver mound with white inscription in it: "Rest In Peace" was all it said.

_As if they're just sleeping..._

He pulled out a scroll, reading quickly.

"Yeah... I think that's everything I need to say..." he said gazing over it. "Man and woman found dead...have relation to Konoha member...blah, blah... Oh, wait, wait, shit. Yeah, I was just about to forget."

I turned, looking up at him again. Strangely, I found myself focusing on the birds flapping their wings behind his head than him. He scratched his short, wavy black hair thoughtfully.

"It seems there was a three year old girl found with the bodies, too..." He said, glancing over the papers.

_More death. _

Looking at my expression, he laughed, shaking his head.

"Oh, no, no, don't worry, the kid's alive." He said, then he grinned, laughing harder. "You really thought that? Damn! Why wouldn't I mention it along with your parents if she was?!"

I stared at him, saying nothing. That didn't stop him from grinning.

"She's pretty scarred up but they're healing her over in the Medical Wing." He told me. "She's been conscious this whole time, but she doesn't remember her name. For the time being, some of the medical nin over there decided to name her... Uh... I think they called her... Anko Mitarashi."

He rolled the scroll up and stuffed it into his vest.

"What does a little girl have to do with me?" I asked him.

"Well, a mental flash was done by the Yakamura clan medical ninja and she doesn't seem to have any recollection of you but she has a lot of memory on your parents, meaning she must have belonged to them."

"What about the genetic testing?" I questioned. "What clan does she belong to?"

_And for that matter... What clan do_ I_ belong to?_

"We couldn't find a match. We couldn't even find a match for your parents' clans. For all we know, they weren't even active ninja. Same goes for the kid. She's too young to tell now, but she could just become a normal villager."

He yawned exaggeratedly, making it plainly obvious he'd rather be anywhere else than there.

"But we know the man and woman are related to you. Hyuga clan members can see chakra signatures, you know? Your signature is a mold of both of your parents." He explained to me, as he fumbled with his weapons pouch. "But the kid was most likely a war spoil they picked up or something..."

_Figures. Instead of getting answers, I'm stuck with more mysteries. One of those being a little girl that isn't even biologically related to me _or_ my parents. _

He turned then, sliding his hands into his pockets.

"Anyway, that's all I was told to say." He said. "If you want anything else, go hound Hiruzen for it."

I looked, watching him walk off with his hands clasped behind his head and then lowered my eyes to the grave in front of me.

_How is it that... After all this time they decide to show up now?_

I knelt in the grass next to the graves. Hiro, who continuously and wordlessly followed me wherever I went, chose that moment to slither away, chasing after some rats.

_What does this even mean? That...for all these years of my life, they were alive and healthy and well...?_

I stared dully at the reflective marble. The sun mirrored back onto my skin.

_Did they...think I was dead?_

My mind washed back to a reoccurring dream I had early that morning of being on top of a rocky mountain ridge, high above anything else in sight. There was one person holding me in their grasp off the ridge and another person standing further back with crossed arms. Suddenly, the person shoved me off and I fell... My arms swung up into my line of sight and my stomach flew up into my throat and the next thing I knew I slammed down into the waves below and everything after that was a black and blue blur. It was always a nightmare.

I always had a strange inkling that it wasn't really a dream. That it was a memory constantly trying to break free and to the surface. My earliest memory of existence was being on a sandy beach, washed up by some river. I walked around for months then, almost completely devoid of hearing, until I ran into Hokage Hashirama. Considering it later, the absence of hearing could have happened if my eardrums were damaged by...water pressure.

_That still...could've just been a dream._

I paused, mulling over the idea and then lowered my head.

_But does it even matter? I...didn't even think I had parents before this. I thought of myself as some kind of anomaly that just popped up out of the ground. Perhaps actually knowing that some woman and man conceived me can offer some kind of relief._

But it didn't. And I knew that. The real honest truth of the matter was that if I had been there in Konoha for an entire decade and they had been wherever they were, it was clearer than the bright, blue sunny day I was sitting in that they couldn't have given two shits about me.

_What mother or father doesn't even go looking for their own son?_

I imagined them, a woman with long black hair, and a man with dark brown shaggy hair, dropping me off that ridge.

"Good riddance!" they called.

_This is...too much._

"Hey, look, Mommy, it's that evil boy from the Chunin Exams!"

I raised my head, looking to the right at a young, white haired kid with his mother and father. His mother, eyes wide, picked up her son and quickly round around the tombstones. His father quickly walked after them, glaring at me with angry, distrusting eyes.

"Why don't they put that maniac in a cell somewhere?" I heard him mutter.

The woman sighed, avoiding looking anywhere near my general direction.

"I guess killing people isn't against the law these days..." she said sourly.

I froze, shaken by what they'd said. It wasn't what they'd said specifically that got me. I was already very accustomed to people saying things about me. Since the Chunin Exams, which had only happened a week before, the entire village, which originally hadn't even known I existed, despised me. Men spat on me. Mothers whispered furiously to each other when I approached and kids threw things at me. All that wasn't anything that particularly upset me... I'd spent my entire childhood being bullied. It was just...

_Killing people? But isn't that what we do? Isn't that what our entire existence is for? What is the difference between killing someone during an exam and killing them off in a war?_

It was then that I quickly understood why I'd been feeling so bitter ever since that day.

_You people are all...liars. You lie to yourselves._

Suddenly, a leaf crunched behind me. I turned looking up to see Hiruzen standing there.

"Oh, I'm so glad you're still here, Oro-kun." He shook his head wearily. "I told Kagami I would take care of telling you the news."

He rolled his eyes.

"As much as I love that guy, he's not exactly...the kind and caring type."

_You're telling me..._

I turned and looked back at the tomb stone, noticing for the first time a white, rubbery item in the shimmering grass blades. I reached, picking it up and turning it over in my fingers.

"Sensei... What is this?" I asked, raising it to him.

It was then and there, next to my parents graves, that he explained to me.

_A great white snake... They're incredibly rare... They symbolize good fortune and rebirth..._

_Snakes shed skin. Snake fact number 2. _

I'd already known that seeing Hiro do it about a hundred times but the white one, with the purity and perfection of it baffled me.

"Perhaps this means your parents were reborn somewhere." He said to me. "And if that's true... Perhaps, you could meet them when you grow up."

"How long will I have to wait for that?" I asked him.

He shrugged. "Hard to say."

I looked down at the snake skin in my hand.

_Rebirth... Almost like...you've just been sleeping and it's time to wake up..._

I looked around at all of the graves surrounding me.

_You all...could wake up and begin again any minute now. _

My eyes settled back down on the tombstone.

"Oh, looks like Jiraiya and Tsunade heard the news, too."

I turned with him looking at them both peeking at us from where they sat in the meadows. Seeing us watching, they both ducked.

"Come on, let's all go out for barbeque. What do you say?"

I glanced back at the family who was still visiting their grave shooting me distasteful looks.

_But as long as I'm with them, even if the whole village is against me, I can still find a place to feel like...I belong._

**Jiraiya**

**Date Night**

"Yeah, yeah, I'll remember it... Just give me the number right here." I said, holding out my arm.

Himiko had grown up to look gorgeous. Her long, black hair cascaded down her back in ocean-like waves and her bright red eyes pierced into mine.

"Jiraiya, you already have, like, five on that arm though." She said.

I glanced down.

"Oh, sorry. Here, get this one." I told her, rolling up the other sleeve of my navy blue long sleeved shirt.

She gave me a presumptuous look.

"Just for the record, I don't want to be considered another one of your playgirls."

"Himi..." I said, stroking her dark hair softly.

She looked at me with large wide eyes.

"You're my _world_. These girls just want me to date them. That's why they wrote on me." I told her. "But you're the only girl _I_ asked."

She blushed, looking down at the grass.

"...Really?"

_No._

"Of course." I said. "Besides, one or two of these isn't for me, it's for Oro."

Himiko-chan made a face.

"Some girl actually asked for _that_ guy?" she asked incredulously.

_No._

"He's not that bad, you know." I said.

She rolled her eyes.

"We were all there at the Chunin Exams three years ago, Jiraiya. Everyone saw it... Saw the way he..."

_Killed that girl._

"That was a long time ago." I told her. "He's changed."

_But not necessarily for the better._

"Everyone avoids him like the plague. And I heard from Suna-chan who heard from Misako-chan that he, like, _never _leaves his house." She said, crossing her arms. "I mean, he _must_ be a weirdo. It's principle."

I laughed.

"He just needs some people to see him for who he really is. That's why I'm taking him on this double date."

She raised one of her eyebrows.

"He actually agreed to go on a double date?" she asked, then she smirked. "Well... Maybe he's not that bad after all."

_Yeah, right... Oro would _never_ agree to something like that. That's why I'm going to have to convince him._

"Now, I'll swing by your house in a few hours to pick you up." I said.

"You better not stand me up, Jiraiya!" she shouted.

"Wouldn't even dream of it." I said.

I watched her walk away swishing her hips and cocked my head, eyes traveling down her back.

_Could be bigger..._

I glanced down at both of my arms looking at all of the Konoha house section numbers on them. I had almost fifteen girls total. Since the day of the chunin exams, I'd gotten a lot of fame with the ladies.

"Sector 21, house 2, huh?" I read off of my arm.

_Now's time to go see what that Snake-Geek is up to..._

It was only about a ten minute walk to his apartment from where I was. Not that I walked, I hopped from pole to pole, house to house, stopping only to buy a quick snack at a popsicle stand. While I was standing there, a family walked by, a man his mother and his two children, the kids bowed to me and the man and woman waved and nodded.

"You're doing a great job, son!"

"Thanks, sir!"

I continued running until I was at his apartment, which was back near the Hokage Manor, and landed on the doorstep.

"Yo, Oro, I'm coming in!" I called.

I turned the knob of his door, which he usually left unlocked, and walked in.

"I got some good news!" I yelled.

The entire place was dark, as usual. It was like the guy believed if he kept the lights off, he'd soak up the darkness and finally get some skin pigment. I walked through the front room, wrinkling my nose at the dusty smell of dead animal.

"And I brought popsicles!"

I stepped over the empty animal tanks in the front room and walked directly into his bedroom. His back was to me as he stood over a tank probing some animals. It wasn't until I heard a sharp squealing I realized that they were ducks.

"What do you want?" he asked me.

"To get you out of this hell hole." I replied.

"I'm busy." He muttered.

I rolled my eyes, crossing the room to his window and pulling the shades up. He shrunk, shielding his eyes from the burst of light that flooded into the room.

"What, have you been dead so long you're_ allergic_ to life?" I asked him.

"Can you draw the blinds? _Please_?" He asked me.

"No." I replied.

I grabbed his shirt sleeve, pulling him away from the tank. It wasn't until then that I noticed one of the duck's was staked down through its leg with a shuriken.

"Shit, Oro... What the hell are you even _doing_ in here?" I asked.

He stared at me. His eyes had that metallic, empty feel. Like he was looking right through you, listening right past you. Just waiting until enough time passed that you would be satisfied and leave and he would just get back to not giving a damn.

"Do I need to _beat _the life back into you?" I asked.

"You really think you could defeat me?" He retorted.

I gave him a matter-of-factly look. A look that basically meant 'why the hell would I _ever_ want to fight you seriously?'. After a moment, he put his hand to his head and began shaking it wearily like he was forcing the craziness out of his head.

"Nevermind."

Wordlessly, I unwrapped the Popsicle I'd brought, broke it in half and handed him one. He took it and we both sat down on the edge of his bed.

"You need some time away from your house." I told him.

He sucked on the Popsicle and said nothing.

"So... I did you a favor." I said, showing him my arm. "Got you a couple house numbers. You can thank me later."

He blinked blankly. I sighed, trying to refrain from smacking my hand to my face.

"You're going out with me, and two girls, tonight. Now stop looking stupid." I said.

He looked down at the floor, playing with the fibers on his mattress with one hand.

"I'm not doing that."

"I didn't ask you."

"You can't force me, Jiraiya." He said, looking up at me. "I'm not going on some random date with a random girl I don't even know."

"She was from the academy, you know, uh... Nanami-chan's friend's sister. I mean, her ass is small as hell but her chest... Shit, Oro. You gotta see it!"

His expression was so dull I felt like I was talking to a two year old.

"Those girls hate me." he replied.

"Maybe if you ever saw the light of day once in a while, they'd think you were normal." I mumbled.

We were silent for a while. Oro finished his Popsicle and tossed the stick into the trash near the bed.

"Do _you_ think I'm normal?" He asked quietly.

"Nah." I replied easily. "Not really."

Then I grinned at his forlorn expression.

"But normal's boring!"

I leaned back onto his bed.

"So, are you going to come or not?"

"I said no..."

"Oro, can't you just-"

"Unless I can pick the girl." He interrupted me.

I raised my eyebrows, jumping up.

"Seriously?!" I asked him.

He nodded at me seriously.

"Let's ask Tsunade."

My face went from excited to depressed in less than a millisecond. I collapsed onto the bed again.

"You must be joking..."

_But of course he's not joking. _

His expression was completely stoic.

"But wait..." I asked, finding interest again. "Does that mean...you_ like_ her?

"Out of all the girls I've ever met in my life, she's the only one who has been kind to me."

_This guy's really serious..._

I couldn't help but roll off the bed and around the floor, trying to stop my sides from splitting open because of the laughter bursting from my lips.

"You have some interesting taste!" I exclaimed between gasps of laughter. "That girl is like the _worse_ kind of person!"

"She defeated you in the Chunin Exams." He stated.

I slapped my hand to my face.

_I'm beginning to regret that decision I made more and more now..._

"How come every time we talk about her you have to remind me of that?"

"You underestimate her. That's why you lose against her."

"I never underestimated that girl. You underestimate _me_." I said, crossing my arms.

"Either her or I'm staying home." He said again.

I raised my hands.

"Suit yourself, Oro. I was trying to help you but if you want to open up that can of bitchiness, then go right on ahead. You'll see what I mean later. I mean, the girl looks like she doesn't even know the _meaning_ of breasts, forget actually having them."

"You're letting those books you read get to your head." He said, walking back toward the tank he had been standing at.

"Speaking of that, I think, now that I've mastered reading completely, I'm going to write books like that one day."

"I'm not surprised." He replied.

I got up from the bed, interlocking my hands behind my head.

"Anyway, it's your job to go talk Tsunade into dating you." I said. "But... I guess I could set up the meeting time for you."

For the first time in a long time, his eyes lit up at me like they were actually interested. On that cue, Hiro, who was so silent I didn't even notice him, slithered out from under the bed and to the other side of the room and lifted his head.

_That thing is so long now, it's scary..._

"When?"

"She's supposed to be meeting some girls at the training field to practice around 1pm, if you get there about two hours later, they should be done and you guys can talk."

He nodded.

"Thank You."

I started laughing again.

"Hey, I just can't believe you have it in for _that_ girl of all people."

"You're underestimating her again." He protested.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." I said, heading out. "And_ please_, for the love of everything sane, stop torturing those poor animals!"

"Hey, Jiraiya..." he said.

I paused, looking back at him.

"...How would you describe love?" he asked me.

His back was to me so I couldn't see his face.

"Is that a trick question?" I asked him.

"I'm serious." He replied.

I thought for a moment, referring back to the time Hiruzen Sensei told us about the purpose of life being to find someone to leave your legacy behind for. And then I recalled meeting the Great Toad which told me my future... I would train the savior of the world one day.

"I guess love is...understanding people." I told him. "Understanding them enough so that you're able to forgive them, no matter what they've done."

He looked back at me.

"So...when you're able to forgive a person... That's love?"

I nodded, formulating the idea in my head.

_That actually sounds...perfect..._

"Yeah. I guess that's it."

His back was turned to me as he leaned over the tank, head bent, fingers working quickly, deaf to the world again.

_And anyway, I'm not underestimating Tsunade. I know she's actually a pretty...amazing girl... But what does that even mean? Just that, she's thinks she's hot shit._

Mostly I was just disgruntled with Tsunade because she was the only girl that could see past the "games" I played with the other Konoha girls. It was almost impossible for me to ever try to put the charm on her without getting my face punched off. Literally. I had JUST healed from the time, a little less than a year before, when she caught me spying on her in the bath and beat me shitless so badly, I was in the hospital with two broken arms, four broken ribs and brink of life and death for at least two days.

It took me a long time before I realized that girls like that, that can see the _true_ you, are the ones that you'll need in the future... Because the day will always come that you'll need them to remind you of who you truly are.

"Hey, Jiraiya!"

I turned as I closed the front door of Oro's house to see Nawa-kun, who had gotten a lot taller in the past three years, running toward me from the direction of the Hokage Manor.

"You wanna spar for a bit? I bet I could handle you!"

"In your dreams, kid!" I shouted.

I darted for him and we bounded down, running along the houses, and carts and, villagers having a full-on shuriken battle.

"Oi, Oi! Watch it kid!" Someone yelled.

One of my shuriken hit a tent and accidentally folded it.

"I'm gonna kill-"A woman began to yell, but then, seeing it was me, a Chunin Exam finalist, and Nawaki, basically the prince of Konoha, her fury mellowed to just worry. "Play safe, boys."

And it was little things like that. Those things were more importantly than the girls, and the friends, and the prestige. Things like people looking at me like I was worth their concern, their love, their time. Everyone was proud of me...especially my parents. And that was all I'd ever really wanted.

_Finally... I feel like I belong. _

**Tsunade**

**That Adorable Confession**

"Seriously, Himiko-chan, you actually told that idiot you'd meet him tonight?"

She blushed and rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet.

"I just... I don't know, he's actually a pretty sweet-talker."

"That's because he's been reading books about naked girls since he was like _six_ years old and he's just looking for someone to try that crap out on." I told her.

"I know he's a goof-ball, Tsuna. Everyone knows that. But still, he's cool. Everyone says so."

Himiko was one of my closest friends since childhood but she was the epitome of the "social network" of that time. She only did things if they were "cool". And if it could in some way degrade her social standing, she steered completely clear. Jiraiya, even though he lost to me in the Chunin Exams, was still awarded the title of Chunin and so he was immediately crowned a "village hero" of sorts. The leaders of Konoha were mostly impressed that out of all the thirty people in that battle royale, the three that were awarded the position of Chunin, were all from Konoha. Besides Jiraiya and myself, the last person gaining that title was, of course, Orochimaru. Even though Jiraiya and my own popularity standings soared, Orochimaru's plummeted. But it wasn't a strange occurrence at all. At those exams... Everyone began seeing him as...a monster.

"Do what you want, Himiko." I said, finally just shrugging.

She grinned, winking at me.

"I get it. You're so against it because deep down inside, you like Jiraiya, don't you?!" she asked me.

I rolled my eyes.

"Of course not." I said. "He's immature and rude and crude. Why would even think to-"

But she was already running off the training grounds. I sighed.

More than anything, talking to Himiko was like I was talking to a past version of myself. A six year old version. Back then, when all I used to care about was having the most friends, which was easy since I was Princess Tsunade, the eldest Senju heir. Friends flocked to me. But, of course, most of them just wanted popularity and money... It was back then, when I decided to risk my status to protect Oro, who was such a wimp, from those asshole triplets that I realized it. Real friends are the ones you gain when you least expect it. Or, like in Jiraiya's case, were sitting up under your nose all along without you even noticing it.

Even though I was serious when I said he was a jerk... I knew he had a heart.

_Back in those Chunin Exams, Jiraiya... You didn't have to lose._

We were both drained, physically and mentally, and Orochimaru's departure from the ring, disqualifying himself was thick over our heads. Our battle was mostly one of Taijutsu, then.

"You're tired." He said, after narrowly dodging another one of my punches. "Even though you learned to concentrate your chakra from Mito-san, you're still not that good at it yet."

"You're one to talk!" I shouted, jumping to punch him again.

He moved around it and kicked upwards, almost catching me in the side of the head.

"Your Taijutsu's getting sloppy, better move for Ninjutsu but, oh wait, you don't have any do you?"

And then he made a face, it was that face he normally made before he said his classic line: "This is SO boring" but he didn't say that. Instead, he ran at me, straight forwardly, and tried to punch me in the face.

_Why would you run straight at me, you idiot?_

I'd preemptively slicked the ground before me with oil using my slugs, however small they were, they were still of some use. He slipped and completely face planted giving me the perfect moment to grab him up into a head lock. After a few moments of him unsuccessfully struggling to get out, the referee grabbed my arm and held it up to the crowd.

"The Winner, and the first pronounced Chunin of the Chunin Exams is...!"

But later that night, while I was getting ready for bed, Nawaki brought up an interesting point.

"That was a cool slug thing you used, Onee-chan." He said.

I grinned, positioning the Chunin vest I was given on my shoulders as I looked into the mirror.

"I know, wasn't it?" I boasted.

"But it's kind of weird though that Jiraiya didn't use his new Water Wave Jutsu that whole time."

"His what?" I asked, looking at him.

"He learned how to do an attack with his frogs. It's called the Water Wave, it's a big water jutsu that could've probably blasted you all the way off that stage." Then he scratched his head. "I'm the first one he practiced it on, so I'd know."

I looked at myself in the mirror, at the vest, at my conceited grin. And suddenly...

"It really sucks when the 'help' is somewhat a better person than you are." I had muttered under my breath.

So, I looked after Himiko, thinking about all that, and frowned when I saw the trees rustling next to me. Suddenly, a large, thick snake slithered out. But by then, I was used to snakes popping up all over my life so I didn't even cringe. I just waved.

"Hey, Hiro." I said, leaning down to stroke his purple scales. "Is Oro-kun nearby?"

As soon as I asked, a head full of long, stringy black hair poked out from behind the bushes.

"Hello." He said quietly.

I raised my eyebrows.

"You're actually outside for once?"

He walked over to me and said nothing. I glanced at a bench they'd built there, near the forest, and motioned toward it.

"Come on, let's chat."

He nodded and sat down. My eyes rose to the sky overhead, which was beginning to wash orange and pink with the impending sunset. A cool breeze came through, lifting my hair from my shoulders, which wasn't in a ponytail, because normally while I sparred I kept it down like that.

"So how is everything anyway?" I asked him.

"Fine."

He wasn't wearing his vest, just the navy blue shirt and the pants. His sleeves, which were slightly too long for him, had something that looked like...pieces of animal feathers on the tips?

I reached over and rolled one of his sleeves further up on his arm.

"So did you come so I could play with your hair?" I asked jokingly. "In the Medical Unit, Mom says they've discovered a jutsu that can turn it different colors."

He shook his head hard, giving me slightly tortured look. I laughed as I rolled the other sleeve up.

"I'm kidding, Oro." I said, giggling. "So what's up, then?"

He reached down and stroked Hiro who had just put his head in his lap.

"Tsunde... What do you think of me?" he asked.

I smiled.

"Hmmm. That's hard. You're sort of a loner. And you're pretty weird..."

He blinked.

"Anything kind?" he asked.

I laughed.

"I was getting there! All that's just stuff I would think of at first glance. When people get to know you, you're actually really soft and sweet."

He raised his eyebrows.

"Really?"

I nodded.

"Yeah, I mean, if it wasn't for you... If you weren't getting bullied all that long time ago when I stepped up to save you... I'd be a really bad person right about now."

I said that, thinking of Himiko.

"But not even just then, you remind me of who I am everyday."

He blinked at me, blankly. Whenever Oro gives that blank, stale expression, it's almost a clear sign he has no idea what anyone's talking about.

"Back when we were kids, I always felt like I was the odd one out, you know? Like I just...didn't belong."

"_You_?" he asked incredulously. "But you were the-"

"I know!" I said, leaning back on the bench. "I _know_! I was the Senju heir, the Granddaughter of the God of Shinobi, and the Princess of Konoha... Blah, blah, blah... The thing is... All that crap got to my head when I was younger. I really, honestly, didn't know where_ I_ ended and the rumors and legends began."

I rubbed my hands on my pants.

"But during the years we spent together as kids, I started to realize who I really was because of you and Jiraiya. Like, Jiraiya, he never hesitated to call me out or put me in my place. And with you...you never looked at me like they did."

I turned and gazed at him.

"You always looked at me like... There was more to me, you know? Like I wasn't just Princess Tsunade. And that made me want to create more about me... If that makes any sense."

He looked blank again. I laughed at his cluelessness.

_He's sooo cute when he makes that face..._

"I guess in a way, I'm saying, you encouraged me to find out who I really was. And now, I feel like I actually belong somewhere." I told him. "When I think of you and Jiraiya, it feels like home."

He nodded.

"I can understand that."

"Do you feel like you belong when you think of us?" I asked.

He was silent for a while and then he reached for Hiro again.

"Perhaps..." was all he said.

Then he turned to me, with clear eyes.

"The real reason I came here is that... Jiraiya asked me to go out with him later and-"

I sighed dramatically.

"You mean on that date he's going on with Himiko-chan? Geez, Oro... You're gonna be _such_ a third wheel."

"Well, I was thinking that if _you_ came along then... Maybe..."

My ears perked up and I turned to him, fully interested.

"You're asking me to go on a date with you?"

Suddenly, he was silent. A couple seconds passed between us. The wind fluttered our hair again.

He rubbed Hiro's scales suddenly seemingly like it was out of compulsive need.

"There isn't any other girl that I would ever want to do something like that with." He said, finally looking up at me. "You're...the only one."

And then, like a brick wall was falling, it hit me.

_Is he really saying this?_

"So... I suppose... Yes." He clarified.

And even that in itself was cute beyond words.

_I can't believe this... Oro, did you just confess to me?_

I smiled, reaching over to pat his head.

_This guy's absolutely adorable. _

"Aw, Oro, you're so sweet!" I said to him, as I ruffled his hair.

He pulled my hand off of his head, still regarding me seriously.

"Does that mean you like me?" he asked me, eyes raising hopefully.

"Of _course_ I like you, Oro!" I told him.

_But, not romantically in any way. That's sick. You're like..._

"But just not like that." I went on. "It's more like...Nawaki...you know?"

_You're like my kid brother. Not anything serious..._

He lowered his eyes back down to Hiro.

"I see."

"But I'll go with you on the date."

He raised his eyebrows.

"For what?"

I playfully pinched his cheek.

"To get you out of the damn house!" I exclaimed.

He cracked a smile, sliding off the bench and getting to his feet.

"It's not like I've been forced to stay inside. I'm just busy."

"Yeah, busy slowly turning your house into a Petting Zoo." I remarked. "Why don't you let those poor animals go already?"

He paused for a second and then turned, gazing at me for a long time.

"Tsunade...what would you say love is?" he asked me.

_That's...a weird question._

A breeze came through again, lifting the fallen leaves through the air.

_But then again, with Oro, I shouldn't be surprised._

"I guess it's...when you really, really care about someone. Like...to the point that you'd do anything for them." I told him.

"Anything...?" he asked, then he cocked his head. "So...when you're willing to die for someone, you love them?"

I nodded.

"I believe in that."

He looked at the grass silently for a moment and then beckoned to Hiro.

"I'll see you later." He said.

"See you!"

I waited until he was gone and then sighed, turning my head to the forest.

"I know you guys are in there."

Suddenly, two heads, one with busy white hair, and one with short, light brown hair popped up.

"You guys are such losers." I muttered, walking over to them.

Nawaki grinned, stepping out of the bushes in front of Jiraiya.

"It was too tempting! I thought you were going to kiss him!"

"She didn't. So anyway, that means I won that bet, Nawaki!" Jiraiya exclaimed, pumping his fists.

_These idiots bet on whether or not I was going to kiss Orochimaru? How dense are they?_

"That was pitiful though. You could've let him down easier." Jiraiya said.

I rolled my eyes.

"I _did _let him down easy." I pointed out. "It's not like I said I hated him."

"You compared him to your baby brother. That _has_ to hurt." He said motioning to Nawaki who stood making stupid faces at me. "At least you could've said you were interested in someone else."

We began walking through the field, headed toward the inner plaza.

"I wasn't lying. He is like that to me. And there isn't anyone else I'm interested in."

"Are you suuuuure?" he asked, wiggling his eyebrows at me.

I scoffed.

"In your dreams, Rai-chan." I said mockingly.

He rolled his eyes and interlocked his hands behind his head.

"I was kidding. It's not like I'd ever be interested in _you_."

Nawaki ran ahead of us, hopping over logs and stones, practicing his backflips and frontflips. His movements reminded me of when we trained in Taijutsu so long ago.

"...Why did you throw that match against me, Jiraiya?" I asked him.

He glanced at me.

"What are you talking about?"

"I know you could've done Ninjutsu back then. Nawaki told me."

His eyes trailed to him, running around the field. We headed toward the sunset.

"So why didn't you?" I persisted.

"I was just a servant's son before." He said. "I was just...the kid that would probably serve you and Nawaki for the rest of my life."

Then he slid his hands into his pockets.

"Now...because I got so far as a ninja, I have my own apartment and people around town know who I am and I have lots of friends. And... I even have a mission in life. I...have what I wanted. I didn't need to do anymore more than what I'd done."

He shrugged, then.

"I mean, sure, it'd be great eating an entire cake by yourself." He went on. "But what's the point when you'd be just fine with one slice? And on the other hand... There are other people who'd enjoy the cake, too."

I shook my head at him, feeling the grin cross my face. I reached over and pinched his cheek.

"I see you've gotten better at wordplay. Those porno books must be really good for that."

He batted my hand away and rolled his eyes. I smiled, tugging on his shirt sleeve.

"I understand what you mean and..." I nodded at him seriously. "Thank You."

He pulled his arm out of my grasp and ruffled my hair.

"Don't get all sentimental on me." He laughed. "The main reason I did it was just because I didn't want to hear Hiruzen Sensei pick on me for beating up a girl!"

I shrugged his hand away and shook my head.

_You can never be serious too long with this guy..._

"Hey."

I turned and looked at him.

"I think your hair looks better up, by the way. But you probably wouldn't ever listen to me because ponytails are _so_ Genin." He commented.

He made his tone of voice sound like Himiko's as he said the last sentence. I couldn't help but laugh.

"You're right. I'd never take fashion advice from a kiddie punk like you." I replied.

But as I watched the setting sun and Nawaki playing on the horizon, and my pale blonde hair blew around me in waves, I couldn't help but think about how much he'd changed. I thought back to when Himiko accused me of having a crush on him which was why I was always picking on him. I looked on toward the brightening sunset as he ran ahead, turning slightly to beckon me onwards. I picked up my pace, breaking into a run.

"Wait up!"

_Even though he's actually started to become someone admirable... I can't _really_ like him, can I? He... And Oro-kun... Both of them... They're honestly just family to me. _


	5. Chapter 5

**Orochimaru**

**Manda**

Even though Tsunade telling me she didn't care for me romantically was undesirable it wasn't unsettling. She was an honest person so I knew that she wasn't lying when she told me she only thought of me as a second little brother, but she was also very easily impressed and could change her way of thinking quicker than anyone I knew. Meaning if anyone wanted her affection, all they had to do was be an impressive person, or more so, someone who never gives up.

While, I walked down the wooden staircase, carrying my final set of tanks to the collecting bin, I considered all that and decided that the best way to make myself more impressive to her would be...

_To end my experiments. I'm finished testing them all, anyway. _

I dumped the tanks in the bin and walked back up the stairs, hands in my pockets.

_I've found out all I can about love._

Which was virtually nothing. I was still at square one but... I was beginning to decide that perhaps, settling upon Tsunade and Jiraiya's versions of love would be enough. Enough to grasp, to carry, to hold on to. I could...accept that.

I walked back toward the front door of my house, which was already opened and pushed it open further. Hiro writhed back and forth on the front floor angrily.

"What is it, Hiro?"

He continued rolling about, flailing and hissing.

_It's a common misconception that snakes only hiss to frighten prey. They also hiss when they're hungry or feeling playful. Snake fact number 6._

"Hiro, stop playing around." I said, dipping down to pick him up. "Jiraiya will probably be here soon."

I walked over to the single tank that I kept in the kitchen and slid him inside.

"And the place is already messy enough."

Hiro hissed at me.

"I know you're upset that I'm giving up my testing." I said to him, stroking his dark purple scaled body. "But I don't think I can get anything else out of it that I've already gotten."

He flicked back and forth in his tank as I placed the lid overtop of it. I reached for a couple of my heavier texts and put them overtop just for reassurance. He'd gotten incredibly long and thick by that time, he was pretty much able to knock over any tank unless I locked the lid.

_Snakes hate being contained. Snake fact number 5._

I stood up and walked back into my room which I'd cleaned almost spotless. I recalled the first time Jiraiya came to my apartment.

He had laughed loudly at me.

"You're all quiet and stuff so you'd think you'd be, like, a neat guy. But this place looks like a tornado hit it!" he shouted.

Because Jiraiya was a servant's son, cleaning ran in his blood. Even though he probably would like to be messy, he kept his apartment pretty orderly. It was a strange difference between us.

I scratched my head in my uncharacteristically neat room and felt a strange urge to push some books over.

_Snakes despise tidy areas. Less efficient for plotting and hunting. Snake fact number 4. _

Suddenly, there was a sharp sound. I whirled around, eyes locking on the bathroom.

"Jiraiya...?" I called.

I stood in the center of my room, watching as the bathroom door creaked open.

"When did you-"

I froze, words failing me. The person presenting himself to me was not Jiraiya.

"Hey, kiddo."

_This can't be..._

Kenichi-san smirked at me, plucking a lit cigarette out of his lips and blowing the smoke into the air.

"Or I probably shouldn't call you that, now, huh? Since you've got your own place and everything."

He walked around the room, not anywhere near me, just around, nudging things, glancing out of my window.

"You're probably like, what, sixteen now, right? Like the boys..."

_I was never the same age as them. I was always three years younger. He knows that. He's just trying to make me speak. _

My eyes flicked toward the exit. He had conveniently blocked it in the route he took to circumnavigate my room.

"What do you want from me?" I asked him, finally deciding to just be direct.

"Awww." He said, frowning. "Is that the way to greet an old friend?"

His blonde hair, which had been shoulder length all those years ago, was cut shorter and he had it slicked back on his head.

"What do you want from me?" I repeated.

His green eyes softened at me.

"I'm hurt, kid. Really..."

He stopped near my desk, observing a photograph I had of me, Jiraiya, Tsunade and Hiruzen Sensei with all of our Chunin vests on.

"One-chan died a few months ago, you know." He spoke up. "She was drinking too much. Ended up killing her."

_Am I supposed to feel something about that? _

He lifted his head.

"The boys ran off." He said. "I figured they came here. You seen 'em?"

_Of course not. Why would they ever dream of coming here? Besides, isn't sixteen old enough to do whatever they want?_

My silence was enough of an answer for him.

"Just checking..." he said, shrugging.

Then he slid his hands into his pockets and faced me. Even though it had been years since I'd seen him, I was still magnificently smaller than him. As I looked up at him, I felt a disturbing sense that the difference between being seven years old and being thirteen wasn't much.

"It might be too little, too late, but it's been really empty over there without you." He said, lifting one of his hands.

I ducked away from his reach and tried to move around him but he took another step toward me.

"Hey, just relax, I'm not going to hurt you." He said, raising his hands in surrender. "How could I, anyway? It's prohibited to do any kind of Dojutsu off of the training grounds..."

I glared at him.

_He's not repeating that law just for kicks. He's doing it as a warning to me..._

"So, if I hurt you with anything like that, I'd be really in for it..." He said, seeming to actually ponder it. "But...with the way most of the villagers hate you and all... I can't help but feel they would just look the other way."

I lost my stance momentarily.

_That is right... They...do hate me. Anytime I walk down the streets to get a mission from Hiruzen Sensei or even to just get food, they glare at me, stare at me, turn their eyes, drop their heads. They really do..._

That moment of insecurity was all he needed. He stepped up to me and brushed my cheek with his fingers.

"_I _never hated you... Even now, I don't..."

I jerked backwards, pushing his hand away from me.

_I can't listen to him. That's how it happens. That's how it always happens. _

I ducked down, trying to run under his arm but he grabbed my waist and turned around, pressing me down onto my bed. He pushed my hands apart and pinned them down, keeping me stranded.

"I just wanted to talk..." he said, leaning over me.

It was then, as my chest pressed into the sheets and my hair tangled in the fists that held down my arms that it occurred to me...

_I always wondered what kind of person you have to be to be a savior of the world. The one that, one day, will stop wars and bring real peace and make everyone happy... I'd always wondered what kind of personality and characteristics you'd have to have... The inherent nature of that person. But then Hiruzen Sensei told me that something as colossal as stopping evil can't happen in one life time... It must be left up to others in your wake..._

"Come on, just relax." He said lightly. "If you do, I'll cut you some slack. I promise..."

_Others... Other ninja... People with such contradictions shrouding them, they spend all day murdering and all night praying over their children, lie indefinitely and promise to tell the truth to a select few, cheer for death in one circumstance and then shun me from society... I'm an outcast already. I'm taboo. So how...could I ever leave anything up to any of these people? How could I ever expect them to become saviors of the world? How can I find friends in these bastards, lovers in these devils, and light in this darkness when these same mocking, insidious assholes would sell their soul before trusting me?_

I tried to force myself up against him but he had me in a tight hold. With my arms pinned on my back and my face in the bedsheets, I could barely even turn to look at him.

"Just stay still..." He whispered, stroking my hair. "It's only gonna be a couple minutes..."

_Hiruzen Sensei said something else... That life was all about realizing that you never win... And with that realization comes the desire for a legacy. Because living such a finite life. You need people to carry on for you. You never win, he said, you only do a little bit better each time... But...how could I ever accept to just do a LITTLE BIT better?! _

My mind flashed back to the triplets, dunking me in the water, holding me under... I recalled the pressure then. Barely being able to breathe. Thinking I was going to die. Not being able to escape and praying for a hero. But all the time I should've realized... There's never going to be a savior coming for me.

_But now I understand. I can answer that question for myself. A savior would be someone that...wins. Someone that fights. Someone that takes it all. Someone that defies logic. Ascends the impossible. A savior would be the person who would stop drizzling and finally just...THUNDERSTORM! _

"Do I have to tell you _three _times now to stop moving?" Kenichi-san asked.

_I want...TO _WIN_!_

There was a second's pause and then suddenly, Kenichi-san froze. There was a loud rumbling sound. I tried to turn and see what he was looking at but he was still pushing me down.

"W-What the HELL!?" he exclaimed.

He jumped back. I slipped on the edge of my bed just as a hole blasted through the wall next to me and my desk flew from one side of my room to the other, slamming against Kenichi-san on the way and impaling him against the wall.

_...What WAS that?_

The ground was shaking. As I turned around, I realized the blasted hole was created by a gigantic tree, one that normally stood next to my apartment, being jammed through the side of the house and into my room. The ground stopped rumbling and Kenichi-san groaned, pushing the desk off of him, which on closer inspection, I realized had the top of Hiro's tank shattered around it.

_...Wait...then where's...?_

Just as I came to that realization, Hiro came through the hole slithering at a speed I didn't know he possessed and over to Kenichi-san.

"Get away from me, you stupid thing!"

He grabbed a shard of glass trying to stab Hiro into the floor but he dodged the blow with ease and wrapped around his arm, shooting straight for his neck. Kenichi grabbed at him, trying to pry him off but it was too late. I knew from various experiments with the forest animals where Hiro toyed with his food before he ate it that once he began constricting there was nothing to make him stop except a failed heart beat.

I got to my feet, pulling my pants up as I did, and watched him. Just watched. As Kenichi tried to reach for me, tapping his hand hard against the wood.

"What do you want?" I asked him blandly. "For me to save you?"

He gurgled, squeezing the snake that just didn't know when to quit.

"Well...you would owe me one." I told him.

His green eyes widened at me with something like fear? Or maybe he was amused by the fact that I picked that time, of all the times in my life, to tell a joke. His hand slammed against the wood again and then fell limp. Eyes glazing over, he stared at me unblinkingly.

Strangely, the moment I realized he had died and I had let it happen, I couldn't shake an overwhelming sense of serenity.

_Heroes win. _

Hiro slithered from around him, snapping at his neck angrily for extra emphasis and then turned to me. And then, strangely, an acute sense of terror shot through my veins.

_Hiro... Since when did he get so strong?_

I backed up on the bed, sliding further up the sheets until my back hit the wall. He steadily headed toward me until his scaled purple head was right in front of mine. Then, very quickly, his tongue flicked out touching my cheek. It wasn't until then that I realized that my face was wet. I rubbed my damp eyes slowly.

"I tried to tell you he was hiding in here..." A voice said.

I dropped my arm, for the first time in my life, being shocked utterly speechless.

"But you were too foolish to head my warnings." Hiro slithered.

_...Impossible._

"...You speak?"

"Of course I speak." He hissed. "You were just always too dumb to listen."

I was silent for a moment, blinking at him.

"You did all this, Hiro?"

"Aren't you aware of your own power, you fool?" he asked. "How could a being of my size create an earth jutsu strong enough to move a tree?"

I looked to my left over at the gaping hole. From there, I could see straight into the living room and the front door.

_My earth raiser jutsu... Had I unconsciously activated it? _

"Your jutsu destroyed my cage. That is what freed me."

_So..._I_ did all this..._

I turned and looked over at Kenichi's lifeless body. His lips had begun to turn blue.

"You and I are connected by emotion. It was your intent for him to die. I simply granted your wish."

I couldn't argue with him. Even though I couldn't remember myself blatantly wishing death on him, I wanted to save myself... And even then, I couldn't think of a way I would save myself, not just then, but forever, except to destroy him.

"Hiro-"

"My given name is not Hiro." He snapped. "It's Manda. And if you continue ignoring me, I'll kill you next."

I stared at him.

"Manda..."

_Not quite a bad name._

"Thank you." I told him, reaching to stroke his scales.

Then I sneered.

"But if I'm truly the one who did all of this, then I don't think you're in the position to be making threats." I told him.

He narrowed his eyes at me.

"Watch out, Orochimaru..." he said, turning to coil up next to me on my bed. "That comment might just turn me hostile."

"Oro?"

I turned, watching as Jiraiya, who I could see through the hole, came walking in with Tsunade right behind him.

"Hey, I know we're a bit early but I figured-"

He stopped short. Tsunade bumped into him, startled by his sudden pause, looked over his shoulder and let out a hair-raising scream. Her reaction startled Manda causing him to hiss at her.

Tsunade's wide light brown eyes slowly left the motionless man on my floor and met mine. I said nothing. I couldn't even think of anything to say.

"Oro...what did you _do_?"

Jiraiya took a step back, looking anxious.

"I gotta go get Hiruzen Sensei." He said, whirling around. "He'll know what to do."

Tsunade took one last look at me and then plowed after him.

"Wait for me!"

I gripped the sheets in my hands. Listening to the hum of the lanterns, the creaking of the wood, the whistle of the wind... Things you only heard when you were alone. In solitude, I had became accustomed to those sounds and I was certain I would become accustomed to them once again. Manda slowly settled back into the sheets and eased his eyes closed.

**Tearing Apart**

I sat on a bench outside of a meeting room. My feet swung silently back and forth. Through the window before me, I could see the sun rising. I hadn't slept all night. I wasn't allowed to. Deep, harsh voices sounded from the room next to me.

"He needs to be quarantined."

I turned on the seat, standing on the bench to see through the window inside of the room.

"Look, we don't know that..." Hiruzen said, crossing his arms and leaning against the far wall. "He's just a thirteen year old boy."

"A thirteen year old boy that blasted his entire apartment to pieces and strangled a man to death." Danzo said. "A child like that in this village could cause serious complications in the future. You all can see it with your own eyes!"

He referred to the ones sitting around them, Homura, Koharu Sensei, and Kagami Uchiha.

Kagami raised his hand.

"I for one can't see anything... Why the hell are the lights so dim in here?" he asked.

Hiruzen smirked while Danzo continued, ignoring him.

"I realize that once you're finished with your term, you're thinking of handing the position down to him." He said, then his eyes narrowed. "Well, incidents like this show exactly why that can_not_ happen."

"You're not allowed to tell me who my pupil can be, Danzo." Hiruzen said. "I can hand the position down to whomever I please."

Everyone in the room exchanged glances. Kagami decided to be the one to speak up.

"At this point, I think we can all agree the kid's kind of unstable... Edging on psychotic, really." He said.

Hiruzen made a disgruntled face but Kagami spoke up again quickly.

"What about your other students? They'd fair really well as Hokage. Tsunade's the strongest female ninja in the village. Not just of her age. And Jiraiya's incredible. Anyone with eyes could see that he threw that match for her." Kagami suggested. "Just pass the torch to them."

Hiruzen sighed.

"While I may admit...giving him the Hokage position one day is a bit of a far stretch at this point... I still implore you to see his overall beneficence to the village." He finally said.

_...Far stretch? _

Koharu sighed and leaned back in her chair.

"Are we seriously having this conversation?" She asked, sounding exasperated. "This is the same kid that couldn't even look people in the eyes and walked around carrying a snake tank all day. I think it's obvious that the whole thing was a freak accident."

"Are you forgetting that people grow?" Danzo asked, turning to her. "That boy has been replaced by a bloodthirsty monster."

"Bloodthirsty?" Hiruzen asked. "Isn't that a bit much?"

"I agree with Danzo 100%." Homura said.

Kagami rolled his eyes.

"When _don't _you agree with him?"

He ignored him, continuing to speak.

"The sooner we nip this in the bud, the better."

"So, what do you propose?" Hiruzen asked.

"We take him out to, uh... Where was it now? That we just got privilege from our allies to use?" Danzo asked.

"The Land of the Waves." Homura provided.

"Yes, yes, the Land of the Waves. Take him out there with some of my close subjugates and put him out in front of a line."

Hiruzen, who had maintained an easy-going nature the entire time, suddenly began looking livid.

"You want put a_ child_ in front of a Shuriken Firing Squad!?" he exclaimed.

"Why not? Good target practice for my men and it solves the entire issue in one stroke." He said.

"I don't see anything wrong with that." Homura agreed.

Hiruzen straightened himself up off the wall, turning his angry looking eyes on him.

"I understand that he broke ninja law by murdering someone inside of Konoha grounds." He said. "But that does _not_, in any way constitute an elimination!"

"He murdered a _comrade_, Hiruzen. If you're going to state the facts, state them properly."

"That man wasn't a comrade to him." He informed them. "He's been abusing him his entire life."

"If that's the case, why didn't he ever come out and say anything about it?"

"Because I handled it myself." Hiruzen protested. "There wasn't a need."

"Oh, really? And that's why all these years later, somehow he ends up dead in his apartment?"

"And moreover, I don't recall seeing even one bruise on the boy." Homura said. "The entire thing looks completely unprovoked. Just like that incident at the Chunin Exams."

"It wasn't unprovoked. I _know_ him. He wouldn't just do something for absolutely no reason." Hiruzen responded.

"Well, someone calling you names really isn't a reason to go kill them... If that was the case, everyone would be dead." Koharu pointed out.

"Do you really think a grown man came to his house tonight to call him _names_?" Hiruzen asked, looking appalled.

"...Then...what are you suggesting?" Danzo asked.

He paused, then shook his head, seemingly deciding just to leave it.

"Look, the point is, he's a regular child. You have to see that-"

But Koharu spoke up.

"Well actually, he's the furthest thing from regular..." Koharu said, shrugging. "I mean, I care deeply for all my students but that's one kid only a Mother could love."

Kagami burst out laughing.

"That's raw, Koharu! He didn't ask to be born looking like that!"

"Well, excuse me for telling the damn truth around here..." She replied. "More importantly than that, the kid's been a loner all his life. Never had any friends. Always been picked on. Honestly, if what Danzo's saying is right, I'm not really surprised either way. The kid was _bound_ to snap someday."

"Oh, come on now. That's absolutely ridiculous. He has Jiraiya and Tsunade!" Hiruzen protested.

"Yeah, because they were _forced_ to be in a team together. Not because they actually chose him." Homura muttered.

"This claim is invalid. Just because he likes to read and he's quiet, doesn't make him a serial killer!" Hiruzen shouted sternly. "He is _not_ a murderer and I will _not_ stand here to listen to you speaking about my student this way!"

Everyone quieted down as his voice rose.

I recalled the moment when Hiruzen, led by Jiraiya and Tsunade, rushed into my destroyed apartment. Strangely, he barely looked at Kenichi-san, whose body was beginning to harden, before rushing over to me.

"Are you okay?" he asked, looking more concerned than I'd ever seen him.

I nodded slowly.

"Come on." He grabbed my hand then, pulling me out of the room, past Danzo and Kagami, who had just rushed in to take a look at the body.

"Where are we going?" I asked him.

"Just to the Hokage Manor." He told me. "You're just going to have to sit tight for a minute, alright? I'll figure everything out."

I lowered my head, saying nothing. It wasn't until we were almost there that, taking a familiar short cut by the training fields, he stopped. Kneeling down to my level, he gave me a once over, grasping my chin and turning my head left and right.

_He's looking for bruises...but...he won't find any._

"Oro, before we go, you're going to have to be completely honest with me, alright?"

He paused, looking directly into my eyes.

"What happened?"

But when I reached, searching my brain for an answer for him, I realized I didn't know how to answer his question.

"I wanted him to die."

He stared at me for a second and then shook his head.

"It's natural to feel that way. Especially if he hurt you..."

Again, my mind was drawing blanks.

"I killed him." I responded.

As I spoke, he was still trying to search me for any definitive evidence. He lifted my shirt, most likely planning to check my chest but I went rigid against him, taking a step back.

"Come on, Oro. You have to tell me what he did for you to respond that way. I know you didn't just wake up and decide to kill somebody."

I tried to search for something to tell him but...

"I...I killed him..."

"Before you did that, Oro. What was he doing to you? Tell me what he was doing."

_I..._

"You don't have to be afraid."

_It's not that... _

I just didn't know the word to explain it. And when I considered describing what happened in detail...

"You're shaking..."

There was absolutely no way I could describe it.

"I'm sorry..." he said, grabbing me and pulling me into a hug. "You don't have to say it."

His shoulder pressed up against my cheek and I watched as I caused a damp spot on his shirt.

"Everything that's happened, isn't your fault. I'll figure it all out and then everything will be back to normal and you can go on living like you originally did."

_Back to normal? ...But when...when has my life ever been normal?_

"I know you'd never do this on purpose." He said. "I'll try and show them it was a big mistake."

"Hiruzen Sensei." I said, pulling away from him. "He died _because_ I killed him."

He wiped his hands on his pants and stood up. Jiraiya and Tsunade were following at a further distance. Seeing us stop, they stopped too, keeping their range from us, whispering to each other.

Hiruzen stroked my head.

"You're just shaken up, Oro. It's alright to admit that it was all just a big accident. I understand that, okay?" he said, continuing to pat my head.

"Sensei, you're not listening to me..." I said, ducking out of his reach. "I killed him. And I'd do it again... And again... And again... As many times as it takes to _win_."

He stared at me, running his hand through his dark brown hair and shaking his head again.

"Oro-kun..."

"You were wrong, Sensei... You were wrong..."

_You were wrong when you said that life was just about peace...and taking it easy...and enjoying the little things...and accepting that no one wins... I can't accept not to win. I can't accept to lie down and let people do what they want with me, or with my life. I fight...to _win_._

We continued walking, and he didn't reach for me again. But as he spoke to his peers, he was defending me again. Telling lies for my sake. Telling them that I was just a normal, helpless boy who didn't know what he was doing.

_Why doesn't he understand?_

"I understand that it must be shocking for you to discover that your prized pupil is a little...uh...loose in the head." Danzo said.

Hiruzen's expression turned dark.

"If you keep speaking to me like I'm stupid, that man won't be the only person who dies tonight." He retorted, walking toward him.

Danzo stood his ground, rolling up his sleeves.

"Alright, alright!" Kagami said getting between them. "Everyone just relax!"

Hiruzen turned around, shaking his head, most likely at his own lost temper. Danzo just scoffed and crossed his arms.

"Now, it's not complicated. It's a simple charge of murdering a comrade." Kagami said, pulling a Ninja Handbook out of his back pocket. "In Section D, Article 34 of Konoha's written laws, Hashirama Sensei clearly stated that the only fit punishment is...death."

"But that's if the ninja in question is either a missing nin who fled after committing the murder or who we believe will murder continuously without remorse." Hiruzen said. "Orochimaru is neither. As I said before, the snake probably strangled the man without a direct order."

"So now we're pretending as though he's not in control of his pets?" Danzo asked.

"Snakes as summoning animals have never been tested. Tobirama Sensei said that himself. From the looks of it, they probably take _suggestions_ not orders. And that snake has a strong bond with him, if it saw that man hurting him, it would probably take matters into its own hands."

Hiruzen turned toward them all.

"I understand what Hashirama wrote but he also encouraged taking situations like these in a case-by-case matter. Just please...have mercy on him. If it turns out, years down the line, that he's a full fledged murderer then it'll be on my head." He nodded seriously. "I'll take all responsibility for his disposal."

The entire room was silent.

Being that Hiruzen Sensei thought it was wiser to have a committee-type setting rather than a complete monarchy, every single decision had to be made with the assistance of his team, more plainly put, the surviving members of Tobirama's six-man team. It was up to them to decide my fate.

"Alright." Danzo said, seeming to seriously consider Hiruzen's proposition. "Suppose we do give the boy a break, we'll be taking the gamble that he won't put any more people in danger or break away from the village. To do that, we'll need to keep a serious eye on him from here on out."

Danzo, paced for a while, and then paused in front of Hiruzen, nodding.

"I propose that we place him under my direct legislation." He suggested. "You can trust that I won't baby him like Hiruzen does and if the circumstance arises, I won't hesitate to turn him over to you to be dealt with, Hiruzen."

"What exactly do you mean by being under your legislation?" Hiruzen asked looking at him suspiciously.

"I'm thinking of creating a special task force of Shinobi who handle difficult missions in the more foreign lands that we deal with." He said. "I'm think of calling it the Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai, or for short, ANBU. They'll be especially necessary in the recent conflicts with the Stone and the Sand..."

He gave everyone a knowing look. Kagami cocked his head.

"Isn't that what Jounin are for?" He asked.

"Yes, but these would be in a class all of their own, even higher than that." He explained.

"You never asked for permission to create that." Koharu pointed out.

"I'm proposing it now, along with the addition of Orochimaru as one of the first few members." He told us. "Though, his loyalties are uncertain, he is most likely the most prodigious ninja in this village currently. That much is true."

"So, you want me to sign off on your creation of the ANBU in exchange for Orochimaru's life. But not just that, also his continuous servitude under you for as long as he lives."

Danzo nodded.

"I think everyone here agrees that it's fair."

_That doesn't found fair at all._

Hiruzen's expression looked like he agreed with my thoughts.

Koharu shrugged, most likely not giving a damn either way, Homura nodded vigorously and Kagami scratched his head.

"Doesn't really seem to be any other way." He answered.

Hiruzen appraised Danzo seriously, lifting his arm to him. Danzo looked down at it and they shook hands.

"Deal." Hiruzen Sensei said.

In just over thirty minutes, my life was set. I dropped down from the bench and pushed the doors open. I turned, making my way up the steps until I was atop the roof of the place. Up there, I sat, feet swinging back and forth over the edge and watched the sun rise.

It could've been a couple minutes or maybe a few hours...or weeks. I was consciously blank. If you asked me, I wouldn't be able to name one thing that crossed my mind. But unconsciously, my brain was spinning a mile a minute.

My mind washed back to a reoccurring dream I often had of being on top of a rocky mountain ridge, high above anything else in sight. There was one person holding me in their grasp off the ridge and another person standing further back with crossed arms. Suddenly, the person shoved me off and I fell... My arms swung up into my line of sight and my stomach flew up into my throat and the next thing I knew I slammed down into the waves below and everything after that was a black and blue blur. It was always a nightmare.

Right after I'd met Hiruzen, it ended with someone with kind, gentle hands reaching down through the surface, grasping me and pulling me up out of the waves and it wouldn't be a nightmare anymore. But lately... Lately that dream has come with no savior at the end.

The wind blew, wiping the loose strands of hair from my face.

I often thought of the moment when Hiruzen pulled me out of the lake after the triplets pushed me in as my birth. I always depended on him after that... Him or someone coming to my rescue...

_But now... With what happened with Kenichi-san, I'm certain now... I have to be my own savior. _

"Hey, Oro-kun."

I didn't have to turn to know Hiruzen Sensei's voice. He walked up to me and took a seat next to me on the concrete edge of the building. Our feet dangled about seventy feet above the entrance to the Hokage Manor where people walked back and forth, beginning their work days.

"I know you probably heard some of that, so at least I don't have to repeat anything to you."

I said nothing. It's like my brain was split into pieces. In one piece, I was at the gravesite with Kagami telling me the news, in another piece, I was at the training grounds with Hiruzen asking what happened to my face, in another I was sitting on the bench with Tsunade. There were faces and faces and voices and conversations all split up and shattered in my head, spinning endlessly like diamonds. I couldn't figure out how they all connected. And which one of them I should listen to. But they kept speaking, begging for my attention endlessly.

"Danzo... Is a pretty crafty guy. Normally, I'm able to stop him before he can catch me in a loop but I wasn't expecting one of this caliber... I was wondering why he seemed so interested in this case..." he sighed. "It seems like, this was his plan all along, to sign off on me allowing him to create his ANBU or whatever... But he just needed the proper moment to do it. And he also probably covets you, too."

He laughed then.

"He wants everything I have..."

It was silent for a moment. Slowly, I turned my eyes up to him.

"You...sold me."

He gazed at me momentarily and then shook his head wholeheartedly.

"No, Oro-kun, I bought your life." He told me. "If I didn't do what I did, they would've had you killed. With no remorse."

"As if they could kill me."

We were silent for a while. The sun was just getting up off the horizon but the colorful sky still remained. I focused my eyes on it.

"Just lay low from now on, okay?" he finally said. "Sooner or later, we'll have an opportunity to get you out from under his thumb. And then everything will go back to normal."

_Again he's saying that. Back to normal. Normal. What is that?_

"What did Danzo mean when he said he would need ANBU for our relations with the Sand and Stone?" I asked.

"Picked up on that, eh?" he said, looking infinitely impressed. "Well, actually... Things might not be looking so good for the village, soon."

"Why is that?"

"The Sand village, in collaboration with the Stone, are considering molding their villages together to create a unified Sand-Stone nation." He explained to me.

"That would greatly outnumber us." I noted.

"Indeed. So, right now, we're just watching their allied conventions closely. Trying to decipher what they're planning and if it could put us in harm."

"It could put the Cloud in harm, too." I said. "Besides us, they're the other village with the most natural resources."

"Correct but lately, they haven't even wanted to ally with or speak to anyone. They've avoided outreach from every village."

_Isolation. The best defense against getting hurt time and time again._

"And the Mist?" I asked.

"They're currently having their own inner power struggle. I'm surprised none of the other villages have tried to ambush them yet. Shows how serious the Cloud is about keeping to themselves and how close the Stone and Sand may be coming to true unification."

_...But if they're having a civil war, and the Cloud is isolated then that means... We're going to have to take it upon ourselves, if we deem this a threat. _

I shook my head.

"We're going back to war." I told him.

And this time, unlike when I was six, he didn't disagree.

_Not only are we going to war, this war will probably be one we'll all be massacred in..._

After a while, Hiruzen Sensei ruffled my hair and opted for changing the subject.

"Remember that girl that was found with your parents a couple years ago?" he asked me.

I nodded.

"Anko Mitarashi, correct?" I asked.

"Good memory." He replied. "She's been stabilized. We've had her in the academy for a while and contrary to our beliefs, she's actually done remarkably well."

"Why are you bringing her up now?"

"Well, with the care giver act banished, she's been living alone." He explained. "But with you as a _sort-of_ relative to her, she wouldn't have to if you agree to keep her."

"...As a pet?" I asked.

He laughed, finding humor in my dead-pan question.

"I was thinking that if we could give you a brand new two bedroom apartment, it'd be good for you. To have someone to be responsible for. Kind of like a cute little sister."

_It sounds more like your way of making sure I can't lock myself up in my house again._

I shrugged.

"Alright."

He nodded, smiling.

"Then it's settled." He pulled himself up from where he sat on the ledge.

I looked up at him, the sun glinted off of his white and red Kage hat.

"But it's getting toward that time..." he made a face. "Looks like I have to get back to work."

He spun in spot, white and red cape fluttering out around him intermingling with leaves on the ground until, using a transmission jutsu I wasn't familiar with, he was gone.

**The Shattered Pieces Become One**

I can't explain how quickly life moved on after that. I returned to my kinjutsu studies. More out of habit, than anything. My thirst was quenched by texts that Danzo provided. If he was good for anything, it was procuring ancient forbidden artifacts. But he had his own agenda, still.

"Learn as much as you can, boy. I'm sure one day I'll need your kinesthetic assistance."

So I studied. Jiraiya and Tsunade became like wallpaper in the back drop of my life. I couldn't relate to them anymore. As I read up an even deeper analysis of snakes and, in particular, the great white snake, I began to associate myself with it.

_Snakes do not befriend any creature, even their own species. Snake fact number 1._

I began to feel like in terms of cognitive ability and true understanding of the world they were eons beneath me. Still, they pushed for my attention.

"Come on, Orochimaru, you're always busy." Tsunde said.

I lifted my head up from the scrolls I was busy writing. Jiraiya lay on my bed throwing a kunai from one hand to the other.

"I mean, even I'm busy, studying with the Old Toad Master and everything, but I can still put some time aside to catch up with my friends." He muttered.

Nawaki put his hands on my shoulders at that moment causing me to bear down too hard on the paper and distort my writings. I gripped my pencil.

"Why don't you guys all go out there and I'll catch up?" I asked.

"But, Oro-" Tsunade tried, probably realizing I wasn't actually serious.

"Please." I said.

They all sighed, muttering inaudible insults about me to themselves and shuffled on.

"Where did Manda go?" Anko suddenly whined, sprouting up from behind my desk. "I wanna play with him again!"

One of the conditions to being Danzo's closest ANBU member was that I wasn't allowed to have my snake following me at all times. I was forced to get rid of him as a constant companion. He was too large to keep in the house by that point anyway. With nowhere else to keep him, he turned to whatever kingdom the snakes inhabited. He only ever accompanied me when I summoned him, after that, but once he returned to them, I was finally able to summon all snakes, small and large, at will. Though I still had a large preference for Manda.

"Do you want me to send you to where he is?" I asked her, giving her a mock-grave look.

She stuck her tongue out at me playfully and quickly hopped along after them, grasping Nawaki's hand.

"Nawa-kun, when I get big enough, will you marry me?"

I stood slightly from my chair, watching through the window as they all made their way out into the street below.

"Awww! Look, Nawaki's got a girlfriend!" Jiraiya teased.

"I'm telling Mom!" Tsunade joked.

Nawaki's face turned a deep shade of red.

"Shut up, guys! I'm eleven years old, I'm not going out with a little toddler!"

Anko planted her feet firmly in the ground.

"I just turned...uh..." she seemed to be doing the math in her head.

Even up in my bedroom window, I sighed. I always had to remind her how old she was.

"Eight years old!" She said. "I'm not a toddler!"

Jiraiya and Tsunade laughed, still poking fun at them. I sat back down in my chair, looking down at the equations I was working on.

"_Life's about taking it easy..."_

I gripped my pencil, wondering, for the hundredth time, if Hiruzen was right.

But soon after that, a string of events happened that didn't give me too much of a choice to ponder it. Danzo had been working tirelessly to create the ANBU but was covering his tracks even as he did it. He formed the "root" which he deemed the necessary foundation of Konoha which protects everyone's freedoms without them knowing about it. At the mention of protecting freedoms, this interested me, and so when I was added, I had no qualms. I was sent to the Sand village, which was only hours away from signing a treaty to mold into the Stone village, and I, dressed as a Stone ninja, singlehandedly infiltrated the base and destroyed the treaty. The Sand pointed the finger at the Stone, claiming they didn't really want to ban together and just wanted to weaken their defenses and declared war. The Sand appealed to the Leaf for assistance and Hiruzen immediately obliged. My first single-person mission as a ANBU member was a complete success.

"Hiruzen Sensei, you do realize that this was all just Danzo's scheme." I told him. "He ordered me to destroy that treaty so that we could break up their union."

Hiruzen pulled his kage hat off, after a long day of work and explaining to the general public that we'd be going to war because of a short term alliance with the Sand, and sighed.

"I see." He said.

I stood there. I wasn't sure what I was waiting for. Maybe I thought he was going to be angry and lash out and proclaim that he would never have gone along with it if he knew... But he didn't. Instead, he turned, looking me fully in the eyes.

By that point, I was almost a full three inches taller than him. He couldn't just reach down and ruffle my hair and tell me things would go back to normal. And he knew that.

"During that mission he sent you on, I'm sure you had to dispose of some people."

My mind flashed back to breaking into the Sand's internal structure, burning down half of their offices and murdering every single person inside of the building the treaty was held in. It wasn't a sneaking mission. The point of it was to get people to see me, using a jutsu I'd used to transmute myself into a Stone ninja, and think they were being betrayed. So I walked through the front doors.

Manda, and a smaller minion of snakes I became acquainted with once he retreated back to his kingdom, fought alongside me. They were so useful, I barely had to fight. Though when I was forced to fight, I showed no mercy. A sand ninja ran at me to the left, swinging his sword, I ducked easily, grabbed his arm and brought my elbow up swiftly into his forearm, snapping it. It had been a long time since I had an issue with my attacks being flimsy. He dropped to the ground, screaming with horror at his broken arm only to be consumed by the barrage of flames behind me, caused by the snakes warping the overhead lights.

"What the hell is going on?!" Someone exclaimed.

Another ninja began throwing a barrage of shuriken to my right, I dodged them all and looked on as one of my snakes, hanging from the ceiling, wrapped around his neck and pulled him up, off his feet. I walked past his kicking legs as he tried to loosen the hold around his neck and went on... Manda took on the larger bulk of people, using his tail, which was extremely large at that point, to clear the path for me.

"It's a plague!" Someone shrieked.

Blood splattered on multiple windows as his tail batted them away like flies. My smaller snakes poured out of the ceiling covers and fell onto heads, beginning to strangle the sand ninja or paralyze them with bites. At one point, people stopped trying to get close to me, seeing it was futile, and began to try to run away but my snakes weren't having that either. I looked on as a woman, extremely frightened by my steady walk toward her, dropped her weapons and turned to run only to be cornered by Manda who leaned up and sunk his fangs into her neck. I walked past, ignoring the woman who's body went limp and began to shake at having her head almost completely severed.

"It's a monster!"

I entered the office with the treaty in it. A woman, whose job it most likely was to protect it with her life tensed up against me. I walked right up to her, watching as her eyes widened in fear and her hands began shaking. I reached until my fingers came into contract with the treaty and then, doing a simple fire jutsu, I burned it, allowing the ashes to fall to the floor in front of her. She stared at my mask, seemingly shocked. I continued my fire jutsu, spreading the flames to every corner of the room we were in. My snakes burst in, coming from the ceiling and windows. I took that moment to enact the ANBU teleportation jutsu, just as they got to her... Her screams rang out, even after I was miles away...

"Oro?" Hiruzen asked, snapping his fingers.

I focused on him again and then shook my head.

"Yes, people were sacrificed." I said truthfully. "For the village... For...freedom..."

"Well, then, I think you'll understand when I say I have to do this for the village also." He said, eyeing me with those dark brown eyes.

I blinked, for a moment, I felt like I didn't hear him correctly. He patted my shoulder and stood up from his chair.

"Why don't you take a little vacation? You've earned it..."

And then he walked past me, leaving me in his office... The office of a Hokage... A hero of the village...

_This... What you're doing. It's nothing but politics._

The door clicked firmly behind him.

I'd always believed that Danzo was the cruelty of the village and Hiruzen Sensei was the hero. The main reason I tried not to protest to being "sold" to him was because I sided with the notion of "keeping your enemies closer". I wanted to, sort of, be a spare eye for Hiruzen in a way. Assist him in his heroic endeavors even if I did have to look like I was on the opposite side.

But...the truth was that...they were both..._always_...on the exact same side. Just because Hiruzen was the one that waved to the masses of villagers with a smiling face during the day and Danzo was the one pouring over mission plans and scheming at night didn't mean a thing... It didn't mean a damn thing.

_But I what did I think he was going to do? Tear down Danzo's entire project? Accuse him of committing war crimes against another village and using me to do it? Insist that I leave the ANBU and become his right hand man? Of course not... _

It took me until that long to realize that it was very unlikely that a Hokage could be completely unaware of what the members of his team, whether they had created a "foundation" or not, were doing. In fact... It was completely impossible. He knew... He knew the whole time... But he just decided not to act.

Even though it was a revelation to me, I didn't allow it to bother me. I might've been unsettled but I wasn't exceptionally bothered. It wasn't until the war actually began that things changed...for us all.

We were all sixteen. The Hidden Rain village was pulled into the war because the Sand was already trashed enough and the Stone and Leaf didn't want to ruin their own villages. They warred in the territory of a neutral land. Like I suspected, many casualties resulted. We stopped having funerals because we didn't have the time, and the ground space, and went for just having ONE funeral each month for the thousands that died.

One of those thousands...was the charm and innocence of the village. ...The Prince of Konoha.

Jiraiya and I were fighting side by side at the time. Tsunade, a medical ninja, had been kept out of the bulk of battle and we rarely saw her. Nawaki, though he was a "fresh-out of the academy ninja" was a choice pick to join our renowned squad since he was so well known.

"I want kick some stone ninja ass, Rai-kun!" he yelled as we ran over there.

Jiraiya grinned at him, playfully nudging his head.

"Stop calling me that!"

"We got word there's going to be about twenty in this area and the intel we're looking for is in the middle." I reported. "We'll clear the way so you go straight through, obtaining the map of the region is more important than getting your hands bloody, Nawaki."

He nodded.

"As you wish master."

He and Jiraiya started cracking up. Because I was assigned the leader of that particular platoon, they kept making a joke out of it. Once we entered enemy territory, we kept Nawaki back with Jiraiya and a few others handling everyone on one side and just myself handling everyone on another. Once the field was mostly clear, Nawaki darted past me.

_That kid's always been so eager to show himself off..._

But that was natural. I was similar. Always looking for a new way to exceed expectations. Especially with the bell tests...which I couldn't have successfully succeeded in if it wasn't for team help.

I just so happened to glance to the left where the enemy ninja I'd just taken out were. On the edge of the stone mound, there was a bit of paper...fluttering in the wind harmlessly. But I knew better... I knew it wasn't the least bit harmless... He jumped up, heading straight for the center of the division, not noticing the trap laid out before him until he was right on top of it.

_Nawaki..._

The explosion was earsplitting. Some nearby ninja were blown away. The necklace that Tsunade was bragging about finally being able to pass down to someone burst through the smoke and debris and soared through the air, landing purposefully at my feet.

From the distance I was at, I could see Jiraiya turn, alerted by the sound of the explosion. He started running back toward me. I couldn't begin to comprehend the series of events that would unfold...

We arrived back to the village with his body in tow. Someone had told Tsunade. She was his only living relative at that point anyway since Tsuzumi-san had perished some time before. When she entered, her face was wet and dripping, I knew it had nothing to do with the rain.

I wanted to say a world of things. And all of them flashed through my mind. Presenting themselves.

But the only thing I could press myself to say was...

"This is war...afterall..." and place the necklace in her hand.

There was a slight lull for us when we were released from our active ninja duties for around a month for grieving, since we were the closest ones to him. Jiraiya would've been a lot better at comforting her than I was. I had never completely mastered the art of consolation. I could only sit there awkwardly. Oddly, however, she branched off from us, finding a lover in a man with a Spirit Kekkei Genkai named Dan. Jiraiya took that time to escape in his toad jutsu studies. And I retreated home, where, of course, Anko was waiting.

"Is it really true, Orochimaru-sama?" she asked me. "Is Nawaki really..."

I nodded to her.

Since Nawaki's death my thoughts had branched off in another way. I began thinking of all the funerals I'd been to, all the death I'd seen, all the ones I caused myself.

"The only thing inevitable in this world is death..." I explained.

I thought of Kenichi-san, of my parents, of Hokage Hashirama, Hokage Tobirama...

"That's the only thing we really know for certain..."

She leaned up on my lab desk as I worked extracting cells from one life form and pushing them into another.

"I'm going to die, too."

What she said wasn't necessarily a question. It was a declaration. She was already nine years old, by then, old enough to understand the process of life. But strangely, it bothered me.

"There's all kinds of Justus's in the world." I said, turning to her. "I've heard about ones that can cure people who are on the brink of life and death or reattach a bleeding heart or even transmute a brain from one person to the next."

She wrinkled her nose.

"That sounds gross."

"Well... There are even ones that could bring people back to life." I said.

And it was there that my mind began raveling itself in a way that it hadn't before. All those shattered pieces. All those memories that I couldn't understand, couldn't attach to, were suddenly starting to try to come together to make a full picture.

"Wow, really?!" she exclaimed. "Then that means people could live forever!"

_Forever...?_

I gathered as much DNA as I could from the most noteworthy ninja in our history thinking that if I could use my kinjutsu to sustain them for even a couple hours away from a host body, it would segue into me gaining the power to keep them alive forever. But soon, sooner than I had to truly experiment, I was forced back out onto the battlefield. Again, Tsunade was apart from Jiraiya and I, but because of some legislation she and Dan had pulled off because of Nawaki's incident, medical ninjas were being trained heavily to be on squad with the front lines.

And then...

"The 21st and 22nd Platoons have both been ambushed." An assisting ninja told us. "After we finish healing our wounded we've been giving orders to head over immediately and-"

"Did you say the 22nd, too?!" Jiraiya exclaimed.

He nodded. Jiraiya turned to me but I was already running. I turned, bounding through the forest as fast as my legs could carry me.

"Oro! Wait! We need to divide evenly!"

But nothing was stopping me from getting there. I couldn't help but flash back to all my memories of her.

When she saved me from my devils...

"_Wipe your face, man. You're embarrassing yourself."_

When she told me who I was...

"_...He's kind of shy...and quiet..."_

When I told her she was the only girl I'd ever really cared for...

"_Aw, Oro, you're so sweet!"_

I burst through the trees.

_There's no way... No WAY I'm going to let her be killed!_

My feet landed firmly on a low branch. I scanned the forest and saw one person lying on the ground, bleeding profusely and another struggling, trying their damndest to heal him.

"Tsunade... Tsunade... He's already..."

She rose her hands to her hair and bent over, long blonde locks whipping around the pouring rain. Thunder boomed. She let out a piercing cry of defeat...of agony...of...pain.

It was then... That was when my thoughts solidified.

_This is all...my fault. _

I listened to hear screams mix in with the booming thunder.

_I was the one who destroyed that alliance. I was the one who foolishly trusted that it would create freedom. I was the one...but for what? At what cost?_

The blue crystal necklace that I had brought to her after Nawaki died lay on Dan's chest, stained lightly with dark, red dripping blood. The rain was making him pool out faster. Her comrades were acting quickly, if the blood wasn't cleaned up, it could cause an epidemic. Tsunade was too far gone. She was grabbing at him, cursing at them, screaming.

I reached for her but... I knew too well I couldn't say anything.

_How can I...when... This time, everything really _is_ my fault._

Inside my brain, all those broken pieces... All those thousands of broken pieces... Broken memories, broken thoughts, conversations, situations, people... They still spoke. They still turned. They all pulled me in, trying to get me to identify with one.

Being pushed into the lake and saved by Hiruzen. (Trust People)

Kenichi-san...and every single time in my life he took advantage of me. (Trust no one)

Being invited to Tsunade's house and introduced to the entire family. (Ninja are lovers.)

Defeating the girl at the chunin exams and being deemed a murderer. (Ninja are contradictory)

Listening to Hiruzen tell me about legacy and love. (Humans are strong.)

Watching them pick up the bits and pieces of Nawaki's body that they could find. (Humans are fragile.)

Those spinning diamond glass shards in my head began to slow down. They inched themselves together... And the closer they got, the more everything made sense.

My entire life hasn't just been one failure after another, mishap upon mishap. It's all been leading up this moment. Right here. Right now.

Jiraiya and the rest of the people from my platoon dove past me, jumping down to where Tsunade was. Jiraiya reached for her, being at that point, the only person she wouldn't violently scream or curse at.

_I understand now. I must be the change I want to see in the world. _


	6. Chapter 6

**Tsunade**

**The Last Time**

I hadn't even realized we had progressed as far as we did until we went up against the leader of the Rain Village, Hanzo. At that time, we all, in perfect unison created by the years and years of training together, summoned our own animals. Standing in a trio, protecting each other's backs like it was the chunin exams, I felt a sense of family I hadn't felt in a long time. A sense of connection. Of order. But the moment I tried to reach for it, hold on tighter, I was reminded of Nawaki. Of all the family I used to have that, suddenly, were no more. And again, I was put on guard.

Soon, without much effort on our part, the rain ninja were all sufficiently decapitated. Even though the sight of blood caused terrible ruptures in my memory, I watched the dead bodies pile up.

_I honestly can't remember why we joined this war in the first place... _

"The Legendary Sanin!" he declared.

He named us then. Gave us a cloak of honor of sorts. Everyone had already been showing me immense respect individually. Calling me the Best Kunoichi of Konoha and the ONLY reason the remaining leaf ninja were able to scrape out alive. His extra label didn't mean much to me.

During the long walk home, we ran into a couple of orphaned rain village children. Jiraiya decided, mercifully, to be a sort of surrogate elder brother for them. Teaching them Ninjutsu. Orochimaru and I departed, I wasn't sure what his reasons were for not staying, but I wasn't interested in anything that had to do with taking up a new family.

"The war is over now." Orochimaru said to me.

I looked back over my shoulder, watching as Jiraiya's tall, muscular figure walked off with three little brightly colored haired kids.

"How can you tell?" I asked, turning to him.

"They've ordered all of us to return to the base nearest the village on standby. There, we'll most likely wait for a day or two before they allow us to go home indefinitely."

"I see..."

_So, it's over now, huh?_

I turned my eyes to the purplish, gray sky above me. Bubbling with the intense need to cry.

"What will you do?" Orochimaru asked me.

"Not going back there, that's certain." I replied solemnly.

"Are you sure that's wise?"

I turned to him.

"I don't know what's wise or advised but I do know what's _sane_. And going back there is not that."

He smiled.

"Sounds more like it's the other way around." He said.

"And you?" I asked him. "I'm sure you're ready to go ahead and take Hiruzen's Hokage position now."

His expression darkened. He turned his eyes toward the vast land before us. It would be hours more of walking in the shoddy, sloppy orange-ish brown mud before we entered anything that looked even slightly like the leaves of the Land of the Fire.

"I'm not interested in anything like that anymore." He said.

I smiled, inwardly reassured that someone else had seen how ridiculously absurd the Hokage position was as well.

_Only fools...go after that title. I've seen that now..._

But still, I wondered what had changed him.

"Wasn't it your dream to take after Hiruzen Sensei?" I probed.

He glanced at me.

"I recently decided that Hiruzen Sensei and I are different people."

"What do you mean?" I asked him.

I looked up to the sky.

"He's a dreamer... Constantly idolizing over the day where he can relax by the lake and give his weapons to an heir." He smiled then. "He's spending his entire life waiting for a fairy tale."

I laughed.

"_You _were supposed to be that fairy tale, remember? Stop wasting his time and make his dream come true."

His smile faded.

"Tsunade... I'm not anybody's hero except my own." He said.

I raised my eyebrows at him.

"Hiruzen Sensei told me once before that life isn't about winning... He said it's about passing down your legacy to followers." He explained. "I've realized now that... There's no such thing as a savior in this world. There are no heroes. There's no one you can count on to do something...except yourself."

He slid his hand into his long, black hair.

"A long time ago, when I asked you what love was, you told me it was sacrificing your life for someone else. And Jiraiya alternatively told me that it was truly understanding a person." He went on. "But...I've come to the conclusion that, it's impossible to truly understand someone. And sacrificing your life for a person only means that, to you, they're what you believe is going to become a hero one day."

_Well, that _is _true... I'd sacrifice my life for Nawaki any day... Because I believed he would, one day, carry on and become the Hokage. The hero. I believed his life would do the world more good, overall, than mine. _

"After researching love for a while, I decided that... It all relies on trust." He said, looking over at me. "Trust is the foundation. If you can't trust, you can't love. However, being a ninja, someone who's entire existence teeters on the border of scheming and scamming, trust is impossible for us."

"So there's no one in the world that you love?" I asked him.

_It wouldn't be surprising if he believes that... There was nobody that he could trust for the majority of his life._

He looked at me for a long time, it was almost like he was documenting and recording every single part of me, the shade of my eyes, the number of pores on my face, the moistness of my lips... Then he looked toward the horizon.

"Who knows." He finally said.

_Why does it sound like he's lost all hope in the world? Even though he's always been a really pensive guy, I don't recall him sounding this...detached._

"...You've become...so depressing lately..." I mumbled.

He remained silent. I nudged him.

"So that means kids are out of the question?" I asked, snickering.

"Anko is enough children for a lifetime." He replied humorously.

"Any child that I could ever have would just remind me of Nawaki... And I can't imagine being with anyone other than Dan..." I told him. "My life... My life has truly been frozen in time. I feel...so finished."

Orochimaru looked at me, probably called to attention by the numbness of my tone. I looked away from him.

_Less like frozen in time and more like...dead. I would never tell Orochimaru that but... I honestly feel like I died there...with them both. This... This body... Is nothing more than a sheet of paper fluttering in the wind...going nowhere...no place..._

I turned, looking back toward the horizon where the walking figures were dots.

"Jiraiya's the only one who seems like he's interested in that kind of future now." I finally said.

"Jiraiya modeled himself after Hiruzen Sensei the best out of us three." Orochimaru said. "If Hiruzen Sensei's looking for a hero... He should consult him."

"Speaking of that, that's the main reason Jiraiya stayed... He said the Great Toad Sage or whatever told him he'd train the savior of the world. How can there be no saviors then?"

His brow furrowed.

"If you want to change the world, you have to do it yourself. You can't just keep passing the buck to your children and their children and their children until the end of time."

His face seemed to harden.

"Or else how will anything ever be accomplished? People like Hiruzen will never fix anything... They just go about their corrupt ways, starting wars and preaching peace and hope that the ones after them will do better. But how should he expect his underlings to do better when he doesn't?"

_...What?_

"Oro...what are you talking about?" I asked him. "...The _stone_ village caused this war."

He turned his head.

"His reasoning for thinking this way is that people die. People die because they are fragile." He went on. "And fragility means weakness. If our lives are short, then there's no way we can actually make any kind of change in the world. There's no way to even learn half of the jutsu necessary to make a change... But if we could live longer. Or forever...then we wouldn't need to live in a fairy tale land where we depend on heroes for everything."

I sighed.

_I shouldn't be surprised he's started to think this way. This war has made him grow up...all of us...have grown..._

"You're barking up the wrong tree, Oro." I said, clasping my hands behind my back. "I of all people know that humans are fragile."

"I'm only saying that Resurrection Jutsus...are not just legend."

I had a mental pause...and cocked my head toward him. He was watching me closely.

"Life is fleeting." He repeated. "So fleeting that how can we ever manage to solve any of the complex puzzles of life if we're only here for a measly 30 or 40 years?"

"You're actually...serious...?"

"There's nothing that's impossible in this world. With chakra. With jutsu. We can be our _own_ heroes. We can start our own winds and torrents. And solve our own mysteries. Only then will be _truly_ be free."

_This guy... I don't know when... Or how... But sometime, during this war, he became...different. No. He's always been obsessed with his studies. Reading, collecting knowledge, gathering information. He's been creating facts about people and his pets and his life ever since I'd known him. But now... He's actually turned into a maniac over it all..._

I turned, shaking my head.

"Shit, Orochimaru... You _really_ need to start dating some girls soon or you might actually go off the deep end." I said, beginning to walk off.

"Wouldn't you like Nawaki to come back?" he spoke up.

I stopped in my tracks.

"With my kinjutsu studies, I could make that happen..." he said. "Dan as well... I could give them both back to you. And not just them, everyone else that was killed during the war, we could-"

My reaction was swift, I was moving before I'd even thought about what I was doing. My palm smacked firmly into the side of his head, causing his hair to swing over his face.

"I never thought I would say this to you, Orochimaru, but you've become a _real_ asshole." I spat.

He slowly turned his head back to me, not looking the least bit phased. Though in his eyes...there looked like there could have been something colder, more distant.

"You think that's funny?! Giving out impossible promises that you know good and damn well you can't keep?!" I yelled at him. "We're not children anymore, Oro! If anyone is absorbed in a fairy tale, it's _you_!"

_I'm so damn sick and tired of promises... Empty promises... Things only idiots and infants believe in._

I brought my hand back around but he caught my wrist this time. I tried to hit him with my other hand but he caught that, too. He began speaking again, not even registering the mark growing on his face.

"Tsunade, I know you want to avoid the village and I can give you your ticket out. Senju DNA is recorded to have enormous restorative properties as well as a very elongated life span. During my first experiment, I'm planning on using Hashirama's cells to test if I can prolong a life, but I'll need someone proficient in Medical Ninjutsu just in case things go awry." He explained. "I'm asking that you come with me."

I pulled my hands out of his grip.

"They're dead, Orochimaru! _Dead!_" I told him. "And none of your little closet experiments is going to change that! What the hell is _wrong _with you?!"

He went on speaking in that calm, empty tone that mirrored the way I felt inside.

"Death is the only thing in life we can be certain about. Everything in life, the clothes you'll wear, the food you'll eat, the job you'll do, is uncertain. But death is not." He said, then he cocked his head, gazing at me in that detached way. "We're all dead already... We've been dead since the beginning... Death isn't separate from life. Life and Death...they're both the same thing. And we've _always_ been dead...and the dead have always been alive."

_This is really happening...? He's actually gone mentally insane... When did it happen? _Why_ did it happen? And why am _I_ the one that has to deal with it?_

"I realize it now, Tsunade. Life isn't about taking it easy and watching other winds pickup..." he went on, still looking at me dully. "It's about being the windmill of change. About fighting...to _win_. If death is inevitable, the only certain thing humans know in this world, then if I fight death and win. Isn't that win the greatest win that could ever be accomplished?"

He slowly let go of my wrists, allowing me free movement again.

The blank, solemn expression that had seemed so adorably harmless before now seemed so broken and cold. I couldn't understand what he was even going on about, much less did I want to. He was correct in only one thing he said... All I really wanted... All I had ever wanted since the beginning of that war...was an escape.

We both stood there silently for a while. He watched me, waiting for my decision and I raised my eyes to the dark clouds looming over the horizon... My mind was whirling in all directions. The world was pressing on me, the sky, the kunai knives and shuriken still littered across the Rain Village territory, his question, his presence, my duty, my village, my country... My life...

_Even now, though he looks empty and detached... I know that... He's just trying to give me what he thinks I want...which is the comfort of my deceased family. It's just this war... This stupid war... It's caused him to snap his own mentality. The road he's on won't lead him anywhere but to a place with more death and destruction and chaos. He's going to spend the rest of his life stepping over more and more dead bodies. Trapped inside of his own foolish ambition. _

I could feel a tear sliding down my cheek. With my attempt to reign in the feelings coursing through me, it was becoming difficult to breathe.

_I know I should be more sympathetic... But that doesn't mean I can follow him. I care about him too much to watch him go on this down-ward spiral to nowhere... I can't...I can't... I can't watch the little boy that used to have a crush on me die the same way everyone else did... _

I reached out to him, touching his cheek, the place I'd slapped.

"Send Hiruzen my regards." I said to him. "Tell him... Tell him I'm sorry but...I need a vacation."

His expression didn't change.

He and I both knew perfectly well a "vacation" likely meant a permanent leave.

"I'm sure he'll be waiting on you to come back." He told me, eyes never leaving mine.

I touched his hair, suddenly, having a strange memory of sitting behind him for hours and hours in my bedroom braiding it and styling it...like he was my plaything.

"This will probably be the last time." I told him quietly. "...The last time we'll speak like this again for the rest of our lives, so..."

I cupped my hand around the back of his head and pressed my forehead to his.

"Orochimaru, _please_... For your own sake, get a grip on reality before your ambitions eat you alive." I whispered to him.

He gazed at me, expression unchanging.

"Come back soon." Was all he said.

My fingers slid from his hair and I backed away from him as he gazed at me with that look on his face That same dull expression. And I knew he hadn't heard a word I'd said. Probably, once he realized I wouldn't join him, his brain destroyed every vision of me in his future... And to him, it was already as though I never existed.

_He's...gone._

I bit my lip, willing my tears to stay in control and turned away from him, departing in a direction perpendicular from where we were supposed to go.

But even as he both said that phrase "come back", I knew it didn't apply. Coming back was a form of saying coming "home" and it was clear... At least to Orochimaru standing there who watched me walk off until he was just a speck, standing there in the oblivion of the trampled Rain Village lands, that I hadn't thought of the village as "home" in a long time. Instead of a home and love and warmth and happiness, I was longing...for an exile.

**Hiruzen**

**I'll Wait Forever**

"It's not as though I have any other options." I said. "If I did, though you are a very exquisite ninja, you would most likely be at the bottom of the list."

He laughed, turning his large, honest eyes to me.

"Really, now? Who would you consider?"

I smiled, settling back into an old man's memory.

"I trained your master, you know." I told him. "But along with him, I also trained two others. They were all incredibly bright and talented and strong. But that's not what would make them good Hokage candidates... It's was their heart. They all had a lot of heart and would do anything for what they believed in."

"I can understand my Sensei. But he never thought he was the type for it, right?"

"Well, he was told when he was young that he would train the savior of the world. So, ever since then, he settled for being the bridge the savior must walk on, instead of the person himself." I laughed. "In the beginning though, he was a really lazy kid... Never wanted to do anything unless there were girls involved."

"That sounds just like him."

"But once he got older, he became really admirable. He was the one who really took on my beliefs and ideologies. There was even a point where, despite what his fortune told him, he would've been proud to take on the title of Hokage."

He cocked his head.

"Well, what happened?"

"Life...and time... After he'd gone off training some children in the Rain Village, he returned three years later only to find his best friend reduced to nothing more than an empty shell and the girl, who I'm sure he'd loved, was long gone." I told him. "His best friends, the ones he'd learned everything side by side with, stopped thinking of this place as their home and so he, with nothing else to really turn to, had to sort of build everything from scratch. Especially after he'd gotten word that those rain village children he'd trained were all probably killed..."

He looked down at the desk momentarily, tapping his hand on the Hokage Hat he was given previously.

"Well, I think it's lucky he found you and began training you when he did." I went on. "Or else, he might've really been depressed."

"I don't think I've really done much." He told me, still fidgeting with the hat. "He's out of the village even now... He leaves often."

"Well, he claims he's gathering outside intel for the village, trying to do his part and help out. But I believe he's just out there looking for any sign them... Proof that they existed before...and that they still exist...somewhere..."

I sighed then.

"His comrades _were_ his home. They were where he believed he truly belonged. So, when they broke apart, so did he. It's only natural..." I explained.

He leaned forward in his chair.

"What about the other two? What was wrong with them?"

"Ah, well... One of them was a very family oriented girl. From the time she was a toddler, she was surrounded by family events and occasions and dinners. Being almost royalty, the first family of Konoha, that community meant everything to her. It was around the time that her younger brother died she began to get colder... She met a man who inspired her to believe again, only to have him snatched away, too. After that, I don't think she could bear to love again. After her duties were done with the 2nd Great Ninja War, she didn't return to Konoha. She just disappeared... No one's heard of her since."

"That was...ah, Tsunade Senju, right? The woman who many people say was the reason Konoha even won that war." He recounted. "Jiraiya Sensei refers to her periodically, but never in a kind way."

I laughed.

"Their relationship was peculiar but I assure you, he had feelings for her... Both of the boys did, in a way."

"What about the last one?" He inquired.

"He was...a very unique case. Initially, he was a boy that no one thought could feel. We all thought he was just a body without a soul, incapable of empathy. But the most peculiar thing about him was there was more empathy in him than most of the kids in this village." I explained, beginning to smile at the memory of him. "He was a child who fought throwing weak punches, afraid to hurt people and spoke in a voice barely above a whisper, like he thought no one cared to listen to him... Yet, he always took the punches thrown at him without question and listened intently to everyone around him."

"Sounds like he was a great person."

My smiled faltered.

"I won't say he was a saint. He had a very strong obsession with knowledge, even from a young age, and often made the mistake of looking at people as numbers and figures instead of actual human beings. Because of this... He committed a few unforgivable trespasses which resulted in him being used as a tool of war. That really changed him."

"A tool of war?" He questioned.

"Well, since you're the prospective Hokage, you're now allowed to be privy to this information..." I mused. "The Second Great Ninja war was a war of desperation. It was time when Konoha, after losing the two founding brothers of the village, was beginning to come to a progressive halt. We were weakening and to make matters worse, two other villages, the Sand and the Stone were planning to ally with each other and create one very large nation."

"Really?" He asked, eyebrows raising. "That doesn't sound like it could ever happen today."

"Because we put a stop to it, knowing that their first target would be us. The Mist's region was so dank and confusing, people often got lost in the miles and miles of mist before they ever even came across a village. And the Cloud is so elevated that they can see intruders coming from the horizon. Because of this, they were both very unlikely to be ambushed. We were the clear target. So, we moved to break their alliance before it could even begin."

He tapped his fingers on the Hokage Hat again. I raised my eyes past him out of the window behind, recalling a distant memory.

"It was a seek and destroy mission and he was the main factor. In fact, he was the _only_ factor. We sent him in, as a one manned army, and he destroyed their treaty and their entire information communications building, cutting them off from contact with the Stone and putting a bad taste in their mouth all in one fell swoop." I explained to him. "Needless to say, because of his efforts, the alliance was snuffed out."

He nodded, catching along quickly.

"So, this kid was pretty much the catalyst that started that entire war?" he asked, looking slightly incredulous.

"In short." I replied.

"No wonder he ran off." He muttered.

"Running off was the only thing he _didn't_ do actually. That war changed him... It turned his heart rabid and poisoned his mind. He became incredibly ambitious after that, seeking nothing but to win a fight that was all in his head. A fight that didn't even exist."

"What do you mean?"

"He decided that he would learn every Ninjutsu there is. I'm not sure what he believed doing that would solve... But I can assume it had something to do with the death. He'd always been really obsessed with the concepts of love and rebirth... Perhaps he thought if he learned every jutsu there was, he was bound to come across one that would be able to revive all the people he indirectly killed..."

He whistled, soaking it all in.

"So what happened?"

"Well... A mission like 'learning every Ninjutsu in the world' is impossible." I said. "So, before that, his mission was immortality. Finding a way to prolong his life. It was then, doing all those studies, testing all those experiments, that his mentality changed. He developed a sort of 'God Complex' which is bound to happen... Once you feel like you know eons more than everyone around you, you begin looking at them like ants. Somehow, someway, his view of humanity shifted and he stopped caring about his initial mission. All that mattered to him was knowing everything."

I sighed, retracting my eyes from the window where they were still directed and looking at him fully in the eyes again.

"The only problem is, even if you do achieve immortality, there's no way you can know _everything_. So, he'd always been fighting a losing battle, thinking, somehow he could come out as the ultimate winner. Honestly... He probably doesn't even remember what his initial mission was now." I paused for a moment, and then nodded. "Jiraiya most likely blames himself for this... Thinking that if he didn't go off with those kids, he could've been there for him. Been there to save him. Ah...I blame myself, too. Maybe if I just could have understood him better, figured out what was going on inside of his head..."

I shook my head.

"In any case, after he tortured around sixty children in this project to bond Senju DNA with them, he fled the village with a student of his named Anko. A couple years later, after some of our ANBU tracked him down, they found her there in the ruins of an old hideout of his. We haven't gotten any intel on where he might be hiding since then... He's also long gone."

_But the fact that he left Anko there means that he must still have _some_ empathy... She claims that he tested on her and nine other children for some kind of "Curse Mark" jutsu that she said he told her would bring them a step closer to being reborn forever. She said everyone died except her. So if that was the case... Why did he leave her, his only "win" from that experiment, to be taken back here? Could he have regretted what he did to them?_

He gave me a sympathetic look.

"I think you did the best you could've done, Hokage-sama." He said. "They say that Absolute Power corrupts Absolutely. He probably got to a point with all of his studies that he made the mistake of deciding he was all powerful. His ego and ambition most likely ate him alive."

_That could be true. But perhaps Orochimaru may have been truly terrified of death by seeing so much of it around him. His ambition to escape it fractured his mentality, creating nothing but a million separate thoughts, memories, and personalities that he unravels and leaves behind like a sort of shed skin... Literally. _

"I'm sorry you've lost all of your 'heroes'." He said.

I laughed.

"Oh, I'm not worried. Not when people like you are so eager to take my position." I said.

I looked down at the desk next to me and slid a framed photograph across the table over to where he sat, in the Hokage chair that used to belong to me until that moment.

The photograph held him and his wife, both of their hands circled around her protruding stomach where a baby was quietly nestling. A future... A legacy...

"And of course, there will be ones after you..." I told him, pointing at his wife's belly. "That is the mark of legacy, though we humans may die, our will, our fighting spirit will not. That's what I truly believe."

"I believe it, too, Hokage-sama. I'm proud my child will be born to a village as prodigious as this one." He said, then he scratched his long blonde hair. "Still... I'm really sorry for your loss."

I smiled at his kind and concerned bright blue eyes and got up from the chair. Slowly, with my hands interlocked behind my back, I made my way across my old office and to the door.

_Legacy... Tsunade chose to forgo leaving one and lost herself in the process, Orochimaru decided that he didn't need one and cursed himself to the darkness, and Jiraiya took that meaning to his heart and left you...Minato. In their own ways, I think they all proved how valuable a legacy can be._

"Don't be." I told him as I grasped the knob. "Even though they're gone mentally and even physically and have been for a long time... I don't doubt that somehow, someday, they'll return."

I closed the door behind me, setting in stone the passage of duty from one pair of hands to another and walked toward the window, looking up at the calm and quiet sky that mirrored the eyes of the new 4th Hokage.

_Until the day I die, I will wait... Even beyond that day, I will wait... Forever... I'll wait for the fateful day when I know my students will finally return home._

THE END!

Author's Note: Thank You Guys SOOO much for being SUPER awesome supporters and reading all the way through to the end of this story! I'm currently working on a lot of other requests from my fans and a story I'm hella excited about writing "American Konoha 2" so if you could do me a solid and check out American Konoha (which is a boyxboy story so that's your warning) I'd love you forever! Stay tuned for more stories! Peace!


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